30-year sentence for man who fatally shot victim in Minneapolis drug deal

A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to a 30-year term for fatally shooting a target for robbery who was lured to a location in Minneapolis by a woman's Facebook message supposedly inquiring about buying marijuana.

James T. Moore of Minneapolis was sentenced in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty in late October to second-degree murder in connection with the shooting of 21-year-old Malik T. Smith of Brooklyn Center in December 2019.

With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Moore will serve about 19 ½ years in prison and the balance on supervised release.

The plea agreement calls for dismissal of first-degree murder and illegal weapons possession counts.

Cases against two alleged accomplices continue. Destiny L. Bradshaw, 20, of Brooklyn Park is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 15. Tyreik L. Perkins, 21, of Hopkins has pleaded not guilty and will likely have a trial date set for early to mid-2021.

They are charged with first-degree murder while committing aggravated robbery and second-degree intentional murder.

According to the complaints:

Witnesses said someone shot at an SUV that then headed south on Russell.

Officers found the SUV crashed into a tree at Russell and 16th avenues. Smith, the sole occupant, was shot twice in the back.

He was soon pronounced dead at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbins­dale.

A witness told police they saw a man matching Moore's description try to open Smith's SUV door, pull out a gun and fire two times.

The witness said a suspect matching Perkins' description was standing behind the shooter.

Moore, who was Bradshaw's boyfriend at the time, and Perkins had plotted to rob Smith when he arrived only to have their target killed.