St. Paul Truck Park mass shooter's conviction upheld by Minnesota Court of Appeals
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Court of Appeals has upheld the attempted murder convictions of Devondre Phillips in connection to the mass shooting at the Seventh Street Truck Park bar in St. Paul three years ago.
READ MORE: St. Paul mass shooting: Grief, recovery and lawsuits loom 3 years later
The appeals court ruling
Phillips, of Las Vegas, is currently serving a nearly 29-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty on eight counts of second-degree attempted murder in connection to the 2021 shooting at the Seventh Street Truck Park bar that injured 14 people and left 27-year-old Marquisha Wiley dead.
Phillips previously argued the shooting was in self-defense, saying he pulled his gun after another man started the confrontation. He sought to appeal his convictions, arguing prosecutors "failed to disprove any of the elements of self-defense and the prosecutor erred by misstating the law and eliciting improper testimony," the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling filed on Oct. 14 states.
But because prosecutors "disproved the no-reasonable-possibility-of-retreat element of self-defense and because we see no prosecutorial error, we affirm," the judge wrote in the opinion.
You can read the full opinion here.
The mass shooting
File photo Devondre Phillips at sentencing. (FOX 9)
The shooting unfolded late on Saturday night, early Sunday morning, on Oct. 10, 2021.
Court records say Phillips and Terry Lorenzo Brown were in a "beef" over domestic abuse allegations involving Brown and the woman he dates, who Phillips describes as a relative of his. Both men exchanged gunfire inside the bar.
Brown was later convicted on multiple counts of attempted second-degree murder and one count each of intentional second-degree murder and being an ineligible person in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to nearly 37 years for his role in the shooting.
Digging deeper
FOX 9 previously reported Truck Park’s surveillance video captured the entire incident and showed how the confrontation unfolded at close quarters in a packed bar.
In one video clip, you can see Phillips wearing a ball cap with his back against what appears to be some boxes.
That is when one of Brown’s associates approaches. The first shot is fired by Phillips, who then makes a beeline towards the door when he appears to be intercepted by Brown. The two went toe-to-toe, and each man was struck multiple times.
Philips claimed self-defense, saying he pulled his gun and opened fire after another man started the confrontation. Brown also claimed self-defense, but prosecutors argued that didn’t apply and that even though it was Philips who fired the first shot, it was a bullet from Brown's weapon that killed an innocent bystander.
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