With grisly evidence, trial begins for the suspect in St. Paul quadruple homicide

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
·5 min read

Dennis Scheffler was driving a tractor in Dunn County, Wis., on a Sunday afternoon in September 2021 when he noticed cornstalks had been knocked down by vehicle tires. He soon came across a dark-colored SUV parked in the cornfield.

The 63-year-old farmhand told a Ramsey County courtroom on Thursday that he walked over to the SUV, which had Minnesota license plates, and peered inside. He said he saw a woman slumped over and a man with his “head tipped up and a blank stare in his eyes.”

Investigators would find in the Mercedes-Benz SUV the bodies of four people who prosecutors say were fatally shot in the SUV in St. Paul by Antoine Darnique Suggs, who now stands on trial for their murders.

“This is a case about a night that was supposed to be fun, but turned into a grisly horror show,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Andrew Johnson said in his opening statement in Suggs’ quadruple-murder trial. “Four senseless murders, all shot in the head.”

Suggs, 39, of Scottsdale, Ariz., faces four counts of second-degree murder with intent in connection with the Sept. 12, 2021, killings of Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, of St. Paul; her brother, Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26, of St. Paul; her boyfriend, Loyace Foreman III, 35, of St. Paul, and her lifelong friend, Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater. Suggs is being held in lieu of $10 million bail.

His attorney, Kevin DeVore, told Judge JaPaul Harris on Thursday the defense would defer its opening statement until later in the trial.

The criminal complaint against Suggs does not mention a motive for the shootings, and Johnson did not give one in his opening statement.

Last year, Suggs’ father, Darren Lee Osborne, admitted to following his son to western Wisconsin, where he dumped the SUV in the cornfield about 65 miles from St. Paul.

Osborne was convicted of aiding an offender by being an accomplice after the fact and sentenced to a nearly five-year prison term.

Suggs, after shooting the four victims, drove around for hours before asking his father to follow him to Wisconsin. 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 told authorities it wasn’t until they returned to Minnesota that Suggs told him the bodies were in the Mercedes-Benz.

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

‘A tragic decision’

In his opening statement, Johnson said that Suggs, who grew up in St. Paul, flew into the Twin Cities from Arizona four days before the killings and soon bought the Mercedes from Flug-Presley’s cousin.

Johnson said they would hear testimony from a waitress of Shamrocks bar on West Seventh Street in St. Paul who saw Sturm, Foreman and Pettus hanging out on the patio and that “nothing was out of place, nothing foretold the horror that would happen that night.”

At some point, they ended up at the White Squirrel Bar on West Seventh Street, Johnson said. “It would be a tragic decision, he said.

A witness identified Suggs as a man seen in the White Squirrel with some in the group, according to the criminal complaint. They left in the SUV.

Surveillance video shows the Mercedes headed toward Shepard Road, but returned to Seventh Street and headed east.

“A camera caught the audio as it was driving by,” Johnson said. “Boom, boom … boom, boom.”

Video surveillance also captured the passenger side of the Mercedes and it appears to show Flug-Presley slumped over in the seat, Johnson said.

A violent scene

The violence of the victims’ deaths were on display in court when prosecution introduced pictures of the victims taken by crime-scene investigators. They caused some in the courtroom gallery to gasp and sob, and Judge Harris to call a brief recess.

According to the Ramsey County medical examiner’s autopsy reports: Flug-Presley had a gunshot wound that entered her mouth and out the back of her head. Pettus had two gunshot wounds to the back of his head and a third gunshot wound to his left arm. Foreman had a gunshot wound to his face and the top of his head. Sturm had a gunshot wound that went through her left palm and into her face.

“I really and fully appreciate the gravity it is for all of you and how hard it is for you to see what you’re seeing,” Harris said after the break.

Another photo showed Suggs’ Arizona identification card on the floor of the SUV. Blood covered most of it.

The prosecution also showed surveillance footage taken just after noon Sept. 12 at the Bridge Stop gas station in Wheeler, Wis. A Nissan Rogue pulled up, then a black Mercedes. The drivers appeared to exchange something. The Mercedes drove away, followed by the Nissan.

Investigators later discovered blood drops in the parking lot.

Flug-Presley’s cousin, Dominique Neal-Hill, testified that he sold Suggs the Mercedes through his parents’ small auto dealership a “few days” before the killings. He said Suggs, whom he grew up with in St. Paul, gave him half of the $7,000 sale of the SUV and that he was going to keep the certificate of title until he got the rest of the money.

The prosecution’s last witness was Darren Suggs, Antoine Suggs’ younger brother. When asked if his mother or father ever owned a Nissan, he said he could not recall. “I don’t see why I’m here,” he told the court.

He then exercised his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination after the prosecution asked if he had spoken with his father after the killings.

After a recess, Harris said he would be appointed an attorney in order to continue his testimony throughout the trial.

Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. Friday.

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