Two men indicted in 2019 killing on St. Paul’s East Side

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
·2 min read

Two men serving federal prison sentences have been indicted on first-degree murder charges in connection with a 2019 homicide in St. Paul, according to information made public this week.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office convened a grand jury in November to decide whether to bring charges against Derwin Idell Moore and John Sheldon Pickens Jr. in the drive-by shooting death of Wayne Rodrick Brown. The 29-year-old from St. Paul was found shot in the street at Hudson Road and Earl Street in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood on Sept. 28, 2019.

The grand jury returned indictments Nov. 2 charging Moore, 36, and Pickens, 37, with first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree intentional murder-drive-by shooting and second-degree intentional murder. The two-page indictments were made public this week as “the State is preparing to commence these proceedings,” court records said.

Detailed allegations against Moore and Pickens are unclear, however, because grand jury proceedings are confidential under state law, and because neither had been charged previously in connection with Brown’s killing. Police said at the time the shooting did not appear to be random.

Previous convictions

Moore was given a 6½-year federal prison sentence in July 2021 after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. According to the charges, St. Paul police pulled over Moore in August 2019, about seven weeks before Brown’s shooting, and found under the driver’s seat a 9mm semi-automatic pistol loaded with an 18-round magazine and a bullet in the chamber. His DNA was found on the gun.

Moore had been convicted nine times between 2004 and 2018 for robbery, drug possession and sale, and bail jumping in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, the plea agreement said.

Pickens was convicted by a federal jury in June 2021 of one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to 11½ years in federal prison.

According to court documents, St. Paul police officers pulled over Pickens on a traffic stop on Nov. 1, 2019. He then sped away and led police on a high-speed chase for several miles through St. Paul, before officers were able to stop him on the Lafayette Bridge and take him into custody. Officers searched his car and found six kilograms of cocaine.

Pickens is serving his sentence at the federal facility in Sandstone, Minn., where he remained on Thursday, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Moore was booked into Ramsey County jail on Monday after being extradited to St. Paul from a prison in El Reno, Okla. Moore made an initial appearance on the murder charges Tuesday, when Ramsey County District Judge Edward Sheu granted him a public defender and set his bail at $2 million.

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