Suspected gunman charged in 2019 fatal shooting outside St. Paul bar

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The suspected gunman in a fatal shooting outside a St. Paul bar in 2019 was charged in Ramsey County court on Monday.  

Devonte Jennings, 28, was charged via warrant with second-degree murder not premeditated and second-degree murder while committing a felony in connection to the fatal shooting in the parking lot of Johnny Baby’s Bar.

According to court records, St. Paul officers responded to a shooting around 2 a.m. on May 4, 2019, in the bar’s parking lot and found a man with a gunshot wound to the arm, thigh and back of the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.  

A witness at the scene told police the victim was near a car trying to get into the back seat when the front passenger, identified as Jennings, leaned out of the car and shot him. The victim fell behind the car and the driver left the parking lot of the bar. The shooting was caught on surveillance video, according to court records.

Officers located the suspected vehicle and executed a search warrant several days after the shooting. Investigators found a cigarette butt, matchbook and latent fingerprints. The DNA from the cigarette butt and the fingerprint came back as a match to Jennings, charges said. 

In March 2023, investigators went to speak to Jennings in the Moose Lake prison about the shooting, but he denied any involvement. When investigators showed Jennings photos from the surveillance video placing him at the bar that evening, he did not deny he was in the photos and said he would wait to speak to investigators with an attorney.

Jennings was sentenced to prison in December 2021 for a weapons charge and was given a release date of April 17, 2023. He was charged via warrant on April 3, 2023, with second-degree murder charges and has yet to make his first court appearance.