The gunman who fired the shot that killed a 14-year-old boy outside a graduation party in Woodbury in 2021 will be sentenced to 20 years in prison as part of a plea agreement he reached with the prosecution.

Enrique Lucio Davila (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Corrections)

Enrique Lucio Davila, 26, of St. Paul, entered guilty pleas Friday in Washington County District Court to one count of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder without intent and one count of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. The charges were in connection with a gun battle that killed Hobbs-Ekdahl as he rode in the backseat of a car on June 5, 2021. The Maplewood teen had just finished his freshman year at Tartan High School in Oakdale.

In exchange for the plea, the prosecution agreed not to pursue an intentional murder charge against Davila, who previously pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense. A jury trial was scheduled to begin April 1.

Two other gunmen, including Hobbs-Ekdahl’s stepdad, who fired the first shot from his SUV, are both serving prison sentences for their roles in the shootout.

Arrest after 3-month manhunt

Police said more than 40 bullets sprayed the area, hitting houses and cars, and terrifying the roughly 35 people at the party.

Davila was arrested at a house in St. Paul’s Payne-Phalen neighborhood after a three-month manhunt that included law enforcement officials asking the public’s help in locating him and distributing wanted posters featuring his photo around St. Paul and on social media.

Davila’s plea deal comes five months after a jury found his friend, 20-year-old Xavier Le’Drew Hudson, guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree intentional murder and assault with a dangerous weapon charges. He was sentenced to 37 years in prison on Feb. 2.

Davila appeared at Friday morning’s plea hearing before Judge Laura Pietan through Zoom from the Washington County jail, where has remained held in lieu of $900,000 bail since his arrest. Sentencing was set for May 3.

40 shots rang out

Xavier Le’Drew Hudson, Enrique Lucio Davila and Jaden Lavan Townsend (Courtesy of the Washington County sheriff’s office)

According to court documents, Hudson, Davila and Jaden Lavan Townsend confronted Hobbs-Ekdahl, his brother Davion Hobbs-Ekdahl and others near the party in the 6100 block of Edgewood Avenue around 10:30 p.m.

Davion Hobbs-Ekdahl told police that Davila stuck a gun in his ribs and warned him, “Don’t try anything,” court documents state. Townsend then slapped him in the face.

The brothers and their friends then left the party. Demaris Hobbs-Ekdahl called his stepfather, Keith Dawson. He met his stepsons and their friends at a parking lot in Maplewood and encouraged them to return to the party with him so the perpetrators “would stop messing with them,” according to the criminal complaint against him.

Dawson drove his Chevrolet Tahoe, while the others followed closely behind in a Kia Forte. When they arrived, Davila, Townsend and Hudson were standing near an SUV parked on the street. Dawson fired six or seven shots toward the group, he later admitted to authorities.

Hudson and Davila returned fire with a barrage of bullets from their semiautomatic handguns that were equipped with 30-round clips. The bullet fired by Davila traveled through the Kia’s rear license plate, then the trunk and the back seat and struck Hobbs-Ekdahl in the back, went through both of his lungs and stopped in his shoulder.

Police arrive

Dawson moved the boy into his vehicle. Police arrived, spotted Dawson’s SUV and pursued him to Regions Hospital, where the boy was pronounced dead about an hour later. A medical examiner determined the cause of death to be “exsanguination” — blood loss — due to the gunshot wound.

Investigators later found 40 bullet casings at the scene, as well as bullet holes in several homes and vehicles at the site of the party.

Attorney Joseph Vaccaro, who represented Hudson during his trial, had argued that Dawson was the aggressor and that Hudson and Davila immediately returned fire in self-defense.

Assistant Washington County Attorney Scott Haldeman, meanwhile, told jurors that Hudson’s case was not what Dawson did. “We know what he did,” he said in his closing argument. “This is a case about what Xavier Hudson and Enrique Davila did back.”

Dawson, 37, was sentenced to seven years in prison in January 2023 after pleading guilty to drive-by shooting. Two second-degree assault charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Townsend, 22, of St. Paul, was sentenced to three years in prison in June 2022 after pleading guilty to second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.

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