Father of man accused of killing four in St. Paul admits to aiding son

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
·2 min read

The father of accused murderer Antoine Darnique Suggs has admitted to helping his son after he allegedly shot four people in an SUV in St. Paul and then ditched it with the bodies inside in a western Wisconsin cornfield last year.

Darren Lee Osborne pleaded guilty Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court to one count of aiding an offender by being an accomplice after the fact in the deaths of siblings Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, and Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26, both of St. Paul; and friends Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater; and Loyace Foreman III, 35, of St. Paul.

Osborne followed Suggs to a western Wisconsin, where Suggs abandoned the SUV, and then gave his son a ride back to Minnesota, according to the criminal complaint against him.

A plea agreement states that prosecutors will seek a 58-month prison term, which is “middle of the box” under state sentencing guidelines. A third-degree assault charge related to a separate earlier 2021 case will be dismissed.

Prosecutors have agreed to offer help in resolving the case against Osborne, 57, of St. Paul, in Dunn County District Court, where he is charged with four counts of hiding a corpse.

Osborne’s plea came a day before he was scheduled to go to trial. Osborne, also known as Darren Lee McWright, will remain jailed ahead of a sentencing hearing scheduled for Dec. 9 before Judge Mark Ireland.

Suggs, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was charged with four counts of second-degree murder with intent in connection with the Sept. 12, 2021, killings, which prosecutors say took place in a Mercedes-Benz SUV he had borrowed. He remains jailed in lieu of $10 million bail ahead of a trial scheduled for March 20.

Suggs also faces four counts of hiding a corpse in Dunn County.

Police are still uncertain what caused Suggs to allegedly kill the four people he was seen with at a West Seventh Street bar that early Sunday morning.

Suggs, after shooting the four victims, drove around for hours before asking his father to follow him to Wisconsin, where he dumped the SUV in a cornfield about 65 miles from St. Paul, according to charges.

Later, when Suggs was alone with his father, Suggs told him that “he snapped and shot a couple of people” and that the “shooting happened in the vehicle on Seventh Street,” the complaint against Osborne states.

After following Suggs to Wisconsin, Osborne dropped him off in Minneapolis. Osborne denied knowing there were bodies in the SUV. When the two headed for the border, they left their phones in St. Paul.

Osborne said it wasn’t until they returned to Minnesota that Suggs told him the bodies were in the Mercedes-Benz, which was found by a farmer in the Town of Sheridan the afternoon of the same day.

Suggs flew back to his residence in Arizona, but turned himself in to authorities five days later.

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