A 32-year-old man who fatally shot a mechanic working on a food truck in north Minneapolis has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
The Hennepin County attorney's office said Friday that Henry Cousins of Minneapolis will be sentenced Feb. 3 to 21 years in prison.
During his guilty plea, Cousins told the courtroom that he considered the slain mechanic, 26-year-old David R. Ryman of Mounds View, "as family" and didn't mean to kill him, only to hit him in the head with the gun.
According to the criminal complaint, Cousins arrived at the food truck in the 4700 block of Lyndale Avenue N. on Nov. 6 and "was agitated and demanded that [Ryman] come work on his car" to make up for a $600 debt.
A witness said Cousins appeared calm for a moment but got "amped up" and shot Ryman, the complaint continued. Cousins and others with him then ran from the scene.
Cousins told police he was tired of Ryman disrespecting him and "wanted to be in charge for once," the charges read.
He said Ryman owed him closer to $700 for work the mechanic hadn't finished on three vehicles. Cousins said in the complaint and in court that he only meant to hit Ryman in the head with the gun but that it went off.
Ryman had just welcomed his third child in late September when he was killed in a block that houses a Dairy Queen, other casual food outlets, visiting food trucks and some light industry. He was shot in the neck and chest, the medical examiner's office determined.
