St. Paul man whose gun was regular plaything for kids is now in prison after boy critically wounded

A man has received a five-year prison term for leaving seven children alone in a St. Paul home where his 13-year-old niece found a gun and shot and critically wounded an 11-year-old boy.

Martinez Castillo Lloyd, 35, was sentenced Wednesday after being convicted in a bench trial in Ramsey County District Court in connection with the wounding on March 29, 2024, of Damarjae Lott in an apartment in the 800 block of Pierce Butler Route.

Castillo Lloyd was found guilty of possessing a gun despite being a felon and a gross misdemeanor count of failing to store a gun out of the reach of a child. Castillo Lloyd’s felony drug conviction in 2010 made him ineligible to possess a gun.

With credit for time in jail after his arrest, Castillo Lloyd is expected to serve about 3¼ years in prison and the balance on supervised release.

According to the charges and the judge’s verdict filing:

Officers arrived at the apartment shortly before 9 p.m. and found Damarjae, now 12 years old, on the floor at the top of the stairs with a gunshot wound to the back of his head. Medics took him to a hospital for surgery.

Several children in the apartment said the girl was playing with a gun while visiting her cousins, then shot Damarjae and fled to her home.

“I accidentally shot somebody,” the complaint quoted her as telling the officers as they took her into custody that night. “I didn’t know the gun was loaded.”

Castillo Lloyd is the father of two of the children, who live somewhere else and were visiting him. His two children and five others, ranging in age from 10 to 13, arrived about 8:20 p.m. Castillo Lloyd left for the store with a friend about 8:50 p.m. and came back minutes after the shooting.

While Castillo Lloyd was gone, his son and his niece went into Castillo Lloyd’s bedroom. They retrieved the handgun and started waving it around. The two told police they have played with the guns “a dozen times” in the past year when Castillo Lloyd was not around, and “the firearms are generally unloaded.”

The niece said she last played with one of the guns the previous weekend, and she assumed the guns were unloaded as usual. As she was waving and playing with the gun, a shot was fired and hit Damarjae.

After his arrest, Castillo Lloyd said he keeps the guns high up in a cabinet and usually stored them unloaded. He acknowledged that his children and his niece have seen him handle the guns previously.

There was no gun safe or “other form of locked cabinet” in the cabinet for storing firearms.