A four-time convicted felon was sentenced to five years in prison for illegally possessing a gun when he was arrested for allegedly trying to murder a man in St. Paul in 2022.

Damion Lashawn Willis, 35, of Eagan, was charged by warrant with second-degree attempted murder in connection with shooting the 52-year-old man at least a half-dozen times outside an apartment building in the Dayton’s Bluff area on March 15, 2022.

Damion Lashawn Willis (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Two days later, while at the hospital, the man told an investigator that he had been shot by his “weed dealer,” who was later identified as Willis, the criminal complaint said.

Prosecutors amended the charges this past August, adding one count of first-degree assault and two counts of possession of a firearm after conviction of a crime of violence. Willis reached a plea deal with the prosecution the same day, admitting to one gun possession charge relating to when he was arrested April 6, 2022, on the attempted murder charge.

The gun charge carries a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence, which was handed down last month by Ramsey County District Judge Nicole Starr. The other three charges were dismissed at his sentencing hearing as part of the plea deal. Willis received credit for 618 days already served in custody.

Weed dealer ‘snapped’

Officers were called to an apartment building in the 300 block of Eichenwald Street around 9:30 p.m. on a shooting report and found the critically wounded man inside. He was taken by medics to Regions Hospital with at least eight gunshot wounds to his abdomen and lower extremities, the criminal complaint said.

A neighbor told officers she had looked out a window and saw a light blue minivan pull up. She said she then heard gunshots, looked outside and saw the minivan leave. She went outside and found the injured man walking up a driveway.

The man told police he was sitting in his dealer’s minivan when the dealer got a phone call. He said the dealer “snapped, pulled out a gun, and started shooting,” the complaint read.

The man said he believes the dealer thought he was a “snitch” because of the way the dealer had been talking on the phone, the complaint read. The man allowed investigators to look at his phone and retrieve the dealer’s phone number and said he’d be able to identify the dealer if he saw him.

Later, the man, “with no hesitation and 100 percent certainty,” identified Willis from a photo lineup as the shooter, the complaint read.

Phone data placed Willis’ phone in the area of the apartment building at the time of the shooting, according to the complaint. Willis’ girlfriend has a minivan registered to her that is believed to be the one used in the shooting.

Willis’ three previous felony convictions were for simple robbery in 2009, fifth-degree drug sales (marijuana) in 2010 and being felon in possession of a firearm in 2014, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison.

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