ST. PAUL, Minn. – A St. Paul man who was facing up to 17 years in prison for firing his gun at a car with children inside was sentenced last week to four months in jail.
But he will serve that sentence either on house arrest or work release, depending upon eligibility, thanks to a plea deal and the sentencing decision of Ramsey County Judge Joy D. Bartscher. He will then do four years of probation.
Jacob Savon Gunn, 20, fired three bullets at a GMC Denali last August near the intersection of Payne and Minnehaha avenues in St. Paul, according to a criminal complaint. Inside were two children, a 4-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy.
“Officers observed two bullet holes, one in the driver’s door and the other in the rear passenger door on the driver’s side. There was another hole in the rear of the Denali,” the complaint says.
Gunn was driving a Chevy Cobalt during the incident and was stopped by police with a “gun magazine in the pocket of the driver-side front door.”
Police recovered a Glock 27 .40 caliber handgun under the driver’s seat with a live round in the chamber and another in the center console. Police also found four .40 caliber casings at the scene.
The driver of the Denali identified Gunn’s vehicle as the same one that had fired at her car.
Gunn initially told police that an adult passenger who was also in the Denali had “pulled a gun” on him. He then claimed he was meeting up with someone to “buy something” and said he had text messages about the sale.
“Officers provided his phone, but Gunn was unable to locate the messages,” the complaint says.
Gunn was charged with one count of using a dangerous weapon in a drive-by shooting and one count of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, both felonies that come with a combined maximum sentence of 17 years.
Under the terms of a plea deal, Gunn pleaded guilty to the second charge and the first charge was dismissed. The “state agreed to [a] stay of execution,” court documents reveal.
If Gunn completes probation with no violations, the charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor.
Judge Bartscher’s sentencing decision was a “downward dispositional departure,” which occurs “when the court stays execution of sentence when the guidelines call for execution of sentence.”
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared at Alpha News.
