Bobbi Martin, Avontae King’s former girlfriend and the mother of his two children, told a Dakota County courtroom Friday that their son, Giovanni, then 4 years old, saw his father murdered last year outside their South St. Paul home.

King, 26, had gone outside to go after Andrew Michael Fisher, who had grabbed a bag of marijuana off King’s table and ran out of the home. Fisher turned around and fired once, hitting King in the chest. Fisher and his alleged accomplice sped away.

Giovanni watched it unfold from a window of the home.

“I’m not sure if either party involved ever noticed him standing in the window,” Martin said. “I find myself lying up at night praying that Avontae didn’t see him standing there, either.”

She said the boy spent the weeks after his father’s Nov. 24 killing reenacting “to everyone around him the way his father’s body dropped to the ground.”

Fisher was given just shy of 13 years in prison for the killing. The length of the sentence, handed down by Dakota County District Judge Timothy McManus, was part of Fisher’s plea deal he reached with prosecutors in May.

Fisher, 20, of Cambridge, pleaded guilty to second-degree unintentional homicide while committing a felony, admitting at the May 14 plea hearing that he went to King’s home with the intent of robbing him of his marijuana.

“The choices that were made that evening taught our children how cold and cruel this world can be,” Martin said.

She said Giovanni and his brother, who turned 2 years old two days after the killing and was also at the home, are supposed to be worried about getting the coolest toy or wanting to wear mismatched shoes. “But instead my son would have panic attacks from his PTSD whenever I would leave the house,” she said. “He watched daddy walk out of their home and never return.”

Neighbor witnessed shooting

According to court documents, Fisher and co-defendant Tre Manuel Iglesias went to King’s home in the 400 block of Third Avenue South. After Fisher grabbed the marijuana, he and Iglesias ran. King was close behind. Fisher, while standing on the sidewalk, turned and shot King, and they fled the scene in Iglesias’ vehicle.

A neighbor told police it was just before 5 p.m. when he heard someone outside yell, “shoot him,” so he ran to his front window and saw three people moving quickly down the street. He said as the two men moved past a car parked in the street, one of them turned around and shot King, who fell to the ground and rolled in front of the car.

The neighbor said the two men, who were wearing dark-colored hoodies, got into an older, black Chevrolet sedan. He called 911 and provided aid to King, who was lying in the street. He was unarmed.

King did not have a pulse when police arrived on scene. He was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

Andrew Michael Fisher and Tre Manuel Iglesias (Courtesy of the Dakota County sheriff’s office)

Later that night, Iglesias reported to law enforcement that he was there during the shooting. Iglesias, of St. Paul, told investigators that Fisher had been staying on his couch for the last week. He said Fisher asked him for a ride and that they went to the South St. Paul home. He said Fisher, while standing on the sidewalk near the grassy part of the curb, shot King. Iglesias said he drove the car from the scene, according to the charges.

A woman told investigators she was at Iglesias’ residence that night when he and Fisher arrived there. Fisher asked her for a ride to Cambridge and she agreed. He changed out of his gray ripped jeans and a black top he had been wearing. She said that during the drive, Fisher “mentioned shooting someone,” the charges say.

Prosecutors charged Iglesias, 23, with the same two murder counts. In an Aug. 8 court filing, his attorney asked the court to dismiss the charges, citing Fisher’s admission to stealing the marijuana and shooting King. A contested omnibus hearing is set for Sept. 6.

‘How dare you?’

King was the oldest brother to his three siblings who had a “gift to make you feel good whenever he came around you,” said his mother and stepfather, Tanasha and Antone Beale, in a victim impact statement read in court by Assistant Dakota County Attorney Caitlyn Prokopowicz.

Avontae Troy King, 26, was fatally shot outside his South St. Paul home Nov. 24, 2023. (Courtesy of Bobbi Martin)

“Avontae was a beautiful young man,” the statement read, whose life was “stripped away from us by a pointless and useless act of violence. So to the people responsible for my son’s murder, we have this to say to you: How dare you? How dare you take the life of our son from us? … Not only did you steal our son from us, you also stole a father from his children.”

Prokopowicz told the judge that she’s witnessed the family’s grief and their love “and I feel like I’ve known Avantae as a result of their stories … the love that they have for him and the love that they have for each other.”

Fisher had no prior convictions as an adult, but at age 17 pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated robbery in Anoka County stemming from a Jan. 25, 2021, incident in East Bethel. The juvenile petition says Fisher and his friend arranged to buy marijuana from a 20-year-old man and then assaulted him in his car and stole it.

Fisher was given a stayed four-year sentence to the state Department of Corrections and put on probation through extended juvenile jurisdiction. Extended juvenile jurisdiction offenders are under the juvenile court’s supervision until they are 21.

Fisher, when given the chance to address the court Friday before he heard his sentence, said he is “not the victim. I’m a victim of my own selfish acts, and I know I may not be forgiven anytime soon.” He said it was a “cold act … and most importantly, I took a young person’s life, a father, and that hurts. And I apologize. I’m sorry.”

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McManus said there are no winners when he sends someone to prison. “One hundred and fifty three months versus a lifetime prison sentence. Is that justice? It isn’t,” he said.

He told King’s family that, no matter the sentence, “you’re not going to feel better. That’s going to take time and prayer and therapy and family to get you to that point.”

He told Fisher, “I’m not going to pick on you, say words that are hurtful to you. It’s not going to do any good.”

He said guns “in the hands of the wrong people who don’t have the maturity, don’t have the permits, don’t have whatever it is, end up with this situation far too often.”