10½-year prison sentence for teen who killed peer, then reenacted shooting at St. Paul high school

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
·4 min read

Antwan Watson was supposed to have graduated high school last week alongside his twin sister and should be planning his next steps into adulthood, Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Madelyn Adams told the court Wednesday.

“But, tragically, Antwan will never reach those milestones because J’veon (Brown) senselessly ended his life at 16 years old,” Adams said before Brown received his 10½-year prison sentence from Ramsey County District Judge Sarah Grewing.

Brown was also 16 years old when he shot Watson four times Oct. 10, 2022, in an alley in St. Paul’s Payne-Phalen neighborhood and then returned to Johnson High School, where he was seen on surveillance video reenacting the deadly encounter for other students.

“J’veon showed no remorse or mercy,” Adams said. “Instead, J’veon returned to school and openly reenacted Antwan’s murder for a group of peers in a crowded hallway.”

Brown, who turned 18 in December, was certified to stand accused in adult court. He pleaded guilty to second-degree unintentional murder while committing a robbery in March as part of a plea deal he reached with Ramsey County prosecutors. In addition to the 128-month prison sentence, the plea deal included the dismissal of a second-degree intentional murder charge and two unrelated juvenile felony theft cases.

Brown received credit for 610 days he’s already served in custody since his arrest and was ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution to Watson’s mother.

Inmates in Minnesota serve two-thirds of their prison sentence incarcerated and the remaining third on supervised release.

Grewing told Brown that unlike Watson “you are going to walk around in your 20s, and you will have the opportunity to demonstrate to Antwan’s family and to your family that you’ve grown from this and learned from this.”

Watson’s friend witnessed his killing

Police and medics called to the alley in the 1000 block of York Avenue at 12:25 p.m. found Watson with four gunshot wounds, including two to the chest. He died at the scene. Spent 9mm casings and live 9mm ammunition were near his body.

While processing the scene, officers were told by two people that “JB,” later identified as Brown, was the shooter. They said he was a student at Johnson.

School surveillance footage showed Brown talking to several students and appearing to reenact the shooting, including “holding both arms out in a shooting stance” and “mimicking chambering a round into a handgun,” the charges say.

A 15-year-old told investigators he was walking with Watson and Brown in the alley and heard Watson call out to him. He said when he turned around, he saw Brown point a gun at Watson and shoot him. The boy said he ran.

He told investigators he did not know why Brown shot Watson. He said Brown later sent him a message through social media that read, “that’s what y’all get.”

Brown was arrested the next morning in downtown St. Paul, near Fifth and Minnesota streets. He had a loaded 9mm Glock handgun in his front waistband, according to police.

In an interview with investigators, Brown initially said that he was at school when the shooting happened and that he heard about it. He gave several versions of what happened, including that the 15-year-old boy shot Watson. After being told there was video of him running out of the alley seconds after the killing, Brown admitted that he shot Watson.

Brown told investigators he had heard that Watson and the 15-year-old were planning to rob him, so “he tried to up first.” He also said he was not friends with them.

“(Brown) taunted Antwan’s friend, who witnessed the murder, over Snapchat,” prosecutor Adams said Wednesday. “And he played games with the police during his interrogation, giving multiple versions of the offense and placing blame anywhere but himself.”

‘Why such an egregious act?’

Adams said the presentence investigation shows that Brown now “takes accountability for his choices” and expresses empathy and remorse. “It is a tragic shame that the J’veon Brown described in the PSI is not the version Antwan Watson walked into an alley with on Oct. 10, 2022,” she said.

Although Brown cannot change his past, Adams said, he can “take responsibility for his future and begin paying society back for the life he stole without justification or excuse.”

Brown, in his brief remarks to the court, apologized to Watson’s family and “more importantly his mom … everything I want to do from here on forward is to make Antwan’s name live on.”

Watson’s aunt read a statement in court written by the teen’s mom, who said “having a child murdered changes you. It changes you so deeply, so permanently. It changes your soul.”

She is left with “unbearable pain” and “also with this somber question of, why? Why did J’veon choose to take Antwan’s life? Why such an egregious act? Why did this have to be the outcome?”

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