A second man has been sentenced to prison in the shooting death of a 20-year-old outside a St. Paul bar in 2021.

Bobby Neal Cole Jr. received 18 years and three months on Thursday after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree intentional murder in the shooting that killed Raymond Renteria-Hobbs and injured a 26-year-old woman outside St. Paul Saloon in the city’s Dayton’s Bluff area on Feb. 23, 2021.

Bobby Neal Cole Jr. and Andrew Vernard Glover (Courtesy of the Ramsey County sheriff’s office)

A grand jury indicted Cole and his co-defendant Andrew Vernard Glover in late 2021, charging them with aiding and abetting first-degree premeditated murder and aiding and abetting first-degree murder by drive-by shooting, along with other charges.

In a Nov. 3 plea deal with prosecutors, Cole, 27, of St. Paul, agreed to the duration of the sentence, which was a downward departure. The remaining charges were dismissed.

Cole was given credit for 641 days he’s already served in custody.

Glover’s case went before a jury in September, with his defense attorney arguing he was not the triggerman. Jurors, however, found him guilty of first-degree murder by drive-by shooting and he was sentenced to life in prison in October.

Glover, 39, of St. Paul, appealed the conviction, and last month oral arguments were held before the state Supreme Court. The case is pending a decision.

Jennifer Workman, Glover’s public defender, argued to the justices that the district court erred by concluding probable cause existed to arrest Glover and search his residence based on what she described as “grainy, dark” surveillance video.

She also told justices the court’s exclusion of reverse Spreigl evidence — Cole’s previous gun crimes — during Glover’s trial, as well as denying his attorney to cross-examine the lead investigator about the thoroughness of the police investigation “impeded and undermined Mr. Glover’s constitutional rights to confrontation and to present a complete defense.”

Victim was shot 10 times

Surveillance video showed Renteria-Hobbs went into the St. Paul Saloon on Hudson Road near Earl Street and greeted several people. A few minutes later, two men arrived in a silver Dodge Journey and went into the bar.

One of the men, who was wearing a Chicago White Sox hat, greeted Renteria-Hobbs. The other, later identified as Glover, did not. “Glover monitored (Renteria-Hobbs’) whereabouts while he was at the bar,” according to the criminal complaint in Glover’s case.

Glover and Renteria-Hobbs talked on the patio and again inside the bar. Glover left and Renteria-Hobbs followed the man in the Sox hat outside. Renteria-Hobbs walked toward the driver’s side of Glover’s car and the man in the Sox hat went to the passenger side.

Surveillance footage then showed the woman hiding behind a truck as the shooting apparently began. Renteria-Hobbs ran in front of the truck as Glover drove away.

Raymond Renteria-Hobbs (Courtesy photo)

Renteria-Hobbs fell, got up, ran to the bar and dropped a handgun in front of the business, the complaint said. Officers found a handgun in that area. It was damaged and appeared inoperable.

An autopsy indicated Renteria-Hobbs had been shot 10 times. Police found most of the casings at the scene on the ground where the driver’s door of Glover’s car had been. Additional casings were also noted along the Dodge Journey’s path.

Renteria-Hobbs, of St. Paul, was a Ham Crazy gang member, according to the complaint.

“Rumor has it that (Renteria-Hobbs) was shot because he stole a gun,” the complaint continued.

Glover has nine prior felony convictions, including three for possession of a firearm by an ineligible person in 2003, 2007 and 2011.

Cole was convicted and imprisoned in Illinois last year for being a felon in possession of a firearm; he was brought to Ramsey County in March to face the murder charge.

Just over a year before Renteria-Hobbs’ killing, Cole was sentenced in an armed robbery. The prosecution and victim sought prison time for Cole, but Ramsey County District Judge George Stephenson sent him to the workhouse, with a prison sentence hanging over his head if he violated terms of his 10-year probation.

In June 2021, a probation officer wrote in a court filing that Cole’s whereabouts were unknown and his last contact with probation had been March 2021, the month after Renteria-Hobbs’ shooting. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

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