Rift over Twin Cities rapper’s song leads to long prison sentence for deadly gunfire in St. Paul

A man has received a 32-year term for fatally shooting a 20-year-old on St. Paul’s Raspberry Island in the midst of a gang-related rift over a rap song.

Romello Ifonlaja-Randle, of Maplewood, was sentenced Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and illegal gun possession in connection with the killing of Marcus Anthony Baker Jr. during an argument on Aug. 14, 2023.

With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Ifonlaja-Randle is expected to serve about the first 20 years in prison and the balance on supervised release.

According to the criminal complaint:

Baker was in the back seat of an SUV playing music by NLU (No Let Up) Skeet, a local rap artist affiliated with East Side gangs. Someone else in the SUV said a man approached Baker and told him to turn the music off.

Baker refused and asked the man whether he was from the opposing West Side gang. That man, later identified as Ifonlaja-Randle, said he was from the “dub.”

“Officers know that rap songs are commonly used by gangs to taunt or mock their opposition,” the charges read. “NLU Skeet has recently been in social media feuds with West Side gang associates. In St. Paul, there have been multiple murders resulting from an East vs. West feuds.”

Officers responded to the island and found a “chaotic scene” with spent bullet casings, two unopened tequila bottles, and Baker in the SUV with three gunshot wounds. Emergency medical responders took him to Regions Hospital, where he died.

Investigators learned the tequila bottles were bought at a Target in West St. Paul. Surveillance video showed Ifonlaja-Randle leaving the store the day before the shooting in the same vehicle that witnesses saw at the scene of the shooting.

Ifonlaja-Randle was arrested a week later in Brooklyn Center, where officers found handguns and counterfeit oxycodone pills.