A man has been charged with murder nearly four years after a fatal shooting in the parking lot of a onetime St. Paul bar.
Devante Lattrele Jennings, 28, was charged Monday with second-degree intentional murder and second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony in connection with the killing of 33-year-old Michael Gray outside Johnny Baby's bar on May 4, 2019. Jennings is currently in prison for possession of a firearm by an ineligible person and was scheduled for release later this month.
According to the charging document:
Police were called about 2 a.m. to Johnny Baby's bar at University Avenue and Chatsworth Street on reports of a parking lot shooting. They arrived to find Gray facedown with gunshot wounds to an arm and the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers found four bullet casings nearby that appeared to have been fired from the same gun. Through a witness statement and surveillance footage, they learned Gray was trying to get into the back of a white Kia sedan parked in the bar's lot before one of the occupants leaned out and shot him.
Three people were suspected of being in the car at that time. Investigators traced license plates on the Kia back to its owner, who said they had given the sedan to a man referred to as "TC" in the charging documents in order to fix its brakes. TC was found with the Kia days later and said he was at the bar that night but had loaned the car to someone else on the night of the murder.
Investigators searched the Kia and found a matchbook, fingerprints and a cigarette butt inside and sent them to the Forensic Services Unit for analysis.
Another man interviewed by police, Wayne Brown, said the white Kia resembled the car he arrived in at Johnny Baby's that night. He denied being in the car at the time of the murder, saying that he left in a different vehicle.
