2 years in prison for man who illegally bought, sold gun used in mass shooting at St. Paul bar

A Minneapolis man has been sentenced to slightly more than two years in prison for illegally buying and reselling one of the pistols used in a gunfight one year ago that left one dead and 14 wounded inside a bar near downtown St. Paul.

The sentencing Tuesday of Jerome Fletcher Horton Jr., 26, in U.S. District Court in St. Paul fell far below the range of the roughly 3 ³⁄₄ to 4 ³⁄₄ years that purely advisory federal guidelines recommend. Judge Donovan Frank's sentence also includes three years of supervision after Horton leaves prison.

Starting in June 2021, Horton bought 33 guns, including many that investigators say he illegally sold to others, according to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) affidavit.

Authorities found one of the guns — a 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol — stained with fresh blood inside a vehicle, according to the affidavit. Authorities found the vehicle after surveillance footage showed a suspect getting into its back seat after the bar shooting, and some of the shells found on the bar floor matched the weapon.

Horton was charged with buying a firearm and illegally selling it to another person, a practice known as "straw purchasing" or "lying and buying." Straw buying is an illegal way to obtain guns by someone prohibited from possessing them because of their criminal past.

This tactic is a primary driver of how illegal guns are flooding the streets and driving violent crime rates in the Twin Cities, federal authorities say.

A court filing by defense attorney James Becker ahead of sentencing argued for Horton to receive a prison term far less than what the guidelines advised.

"Although Mr. Horton had naively believed initially that he was not responsible for what others did after their [gun] transactions were completed," Becker wrote, "he now knows that this was merely an illusion, and he is rightfully mortified that he may have played a meaningful role in the injuries or even [death] of other people, whether he knew them or not."

The gunfight on Oct. 10, 2021, near downtown St. Paul in the Seventh Street Truck Park bar was the city's largest mass shooting in recent history. The shots rang out just after midnight, sending patrons rushing outside and killing 27-year-old Marquisha Wiley of South St. Paul.

St. Paul police identified one of the shooting suspects, according to charging documents, and surveillance footage showed him leaving the bar with a firearm and getting into the vehicle, where the 9-millimeter gun was found.

The ATF traced the gun to Horton, who had bought it and two others at a Fleet Farm. He also bought guns at Frontiersman Sports in St. Louis Park, where employees said he raised their suspicions. After one purchase, according to the ATF, surveillance footage showed Horton waving the gun boxes in the air to people waiting outside the store.

Five days before the first anniversary of the mass shooting, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Fleet Farm, accusing the retailer of repeatedly selling guns to straw buyers.

"We comply with all applicable gun laws and devote substantial resources to training and compliance."

Also charged in connection with the mass shooting are Devondre Trevon Phillips, 30, of Las Vegas, with eight counts of attempted second-degree murder, and Terry Lorenzo Brown, 34, of St. Paul, with one count of intentional second-degree murder and four counts of attempted second-degree murder. Both are scheduled to be tried together starting on Jan. 30.