Suspect’s father sentenced in St. Paul quadruple murder. Victim’s father left with questions.

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press
·2 min read

Why didn’t the father of a quadruple murder suspect advise his son to do the right thing? That’s what one of the victims’ fathers asked Friday after a judge sentenced Darren Lee Osborne to a nearly five-year prison term for helping his son.

“You teach your kids to be responsible, to be caring, to be accountable,” said Damone Presley, Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley’s father. “And for this parent to involve himself in this act with his son, what type of parenting is that?”

Osborne, 57, pleaded guilty in October to aiding an offender by being an accomplice after the fact in the shootings of siblings Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, and Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26; Sturm’s boyfriend, Loyace Foreman III, 35; and their friend, Flug-Presley, 30.

Osborne’s son, Antoine D. Suggs, is charged with four counts of murder. The victims were hanging out at two West Seventh Street bars in St. Paul and were seen getting in a sports utility vehicle early Sept. 12, 2021. Police say Suggs was driving and shot them in the vehicle.

Suggs went to Osborne and told him “he snapped and shot a couple of people,” according to the criminal complaint, which doesn’t otherwise describe a motive. He asked his father to follow him in another vehicle. Suggs drove to Dunn County, Wis., and dumped the SUV — with the bodies inside — in a cornfield and Osborne gave him a ride to Minneapolis, the complaint said.

In a plea agreement with Osborne, prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence of four years and 10 months, which is “middle of the box” under state sentencing guidelines, and that’s the sentence Ramsey County Judge Mark Ireland gave Osborne Friday. Osborne has been jailed since his arrest in the case and has credit for 458 days served, according to court records.

Flug-Presley was a mother and her children are now 5 and 12. Presley said his life hasn’t been the same since his daughter was killed.

“With the holidays coming up, I have this sense of loss,” he said.

Suggs, 39, has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial next year. He remains jailed.

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