Two accomplices admit luring drug dealer into deadly trap at Minneapolis riverfront apartments

Two accomplices have admitted to luring a drug dealer to a riverfront apartment building north of downtown Minneapolis and fatally shooting him.

The killing on April 19 sent the victim’s vehicle crashing into the garage door of the Peregrine Apartments at West River Parkway and W. Broadway, which overlooks the Mississippi River and downtown.

Jayce Nasir Cuff, 20, of Minneapolis, and Darnail Arnez LaBrec, 18, of Brooklyn Center both pleaded guilty in Hennepin County District Court last week to second-degree murder in connection with the shooting of Davione Daunte Charles Collins, 27, of Maple Grove.

The plea agreement between the prosecution and the defense calls for Cuff to receive a 16¼-year term that also resolves a lesser offense from when he was a juvenile.

Cuff remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail ahead of sentencing on Oct. 28. With credit for time in jail since his arrest, he is expected to serve the first 10½ years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.

LaBrec’s plea deal on the same murder count calls for a 13¾-year term and the likelihood of spending about nine years in prison and the rest on supervised release.

Also charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder was a 16-year-old from Minneapolis. However, the case against him was dismissed Thursday because “as the investigation and evidence evolved, we could no longer prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Farah Habad, a spokesperson for the County Attorney’s Office.

According to the charges:

Officers sent to the apartment complex at about 10:15 p.m. saw a car that had crashed into an underground garage door. They found Collins dead from a gunshot to the neck. The vehicle had bullet holes indicating the gunfire had come from several angles.

Cuff and LaBrec “participated in the killing” of Collins, and “were assisted” by the 16-year-old, the charges read.

Police found inside the car a large amount of marijuana packaged into smaller amounts for sale and a digital scale.

A later police search of LaBrec’s phone turned up photos of him inside the apartment building and holding a handgun that was manipulated to be an automatic weapon. Also in the phone was a text conversation from the night before indicating an intention to rob someone of drugs.

Surveillance video captured Collins stopping outside the apartment building. While two people stand by the driver’s side window, shots are fired. As the car rolls toward the garage entry, the shooters run into the building as the 16-year-old holds the door open for them.

Cuff’s extensive history of violent crime includes being one of four teenagers charged with robbing Bryn Mawr Market in December 2021 in Minneapolis. A cashier was pistol-whipped and shot in the stomach. Those same teens were charged with the armed robbery of an Amstar gas station in Minneapolis the night before the market holdup.

Cuff pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree aggravated robbery in those cases and had a four-year prison sentence stayed until his 21st birthday in 2026. He was placed on probation and sent to the West Central Regional Juvenile Center in Moorhead to complete rehabilitation programming.

LaBrec has had at least four criminal cases in juvenile court, dating to 2022. Last year, he pleaded guilty to illegal firearm possession after police searched his home and car and found a loaded handgun. The search was tied to someone flashing a gun at Unity Foods in Minneapolis.