Last Defendant Pleads Guilty In Fatal Mpls. Convenience Store Shooting
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 20-year-old Columbia Heights man has pleaded guilty to his involvement in a fatal shooting at a north Minneapolis convenience store last year.
On Tuesday, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced that Kevin Martinez made a straight guilty plea of aiding an offender after the fact in court Monday. He's the last defendant to plead guilty in the shooting.
According to the criminal complaint and Martinez's statements during his guilty plea, on the evening of Sept. 9, 2018, 18-year-old Jamarius Shief and Demerio Davis, 20, both of Minneapolis entered the Emerson Food Market on the 2600 block of Emerson Ave. N.
There, Davis and Shief immediately got into a discussion with two men already in the store, Martinez and 23-year-old Samuel Abron-Yeager of Fridley. Davis and Shief then left the store.
Both Davis and Shief returned to the store shortly after and began punching Martinez. Davis stood by the door and fired several shots at Abron-Yeager, the complaint said.
The complaint says Abron-Yeager then pulled out his own gun, chased after Davis and fired several shots outside the store before falling to the ground from his wounds. One of those gunshots fatally wounded Shief.
Martinez then went outside where the gravely wounded Abron-Yeager handed him the gun. Martinez then fled the scene with the murder weapon.
Abron-Yeager was rushed to the hospital where he died from gunshot wounds fired by Davis.
Davis was arrested about two blocks from the store, and was prohibited from possessing firearms due to a 2013 case for aggravated robbery.
Davis pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in February and was sentenced to 195 months, or over 16 years, in prison.
Martinez will be sentenced on September 9.
