A third gunman has been sentenced for his role in the West Side gang slaying of a man who was shot while playing a video game in front of his bedroom window.

Montez Dalray Davis, 26, was one of four men charged in Ramsey County District Court in the murder of Casanova Giovanni Carter, who was struck by three bullets fired through the window of his home in the 700 block of Winslow Avenue around 10:15 p.m. Feb. 1, 2022.

Casanova Carter (Courtesy of family)

Carter, a 26-year-old father of three children, was hit in the head, face and back and died at the scene. Investigators recovered 18 spent casings outside the home that ballistics testing showed came from four guns: three 9mm and a .45 caliber.

On Tuesday, Davis, of Brooklyn Park, admitted in court to second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony, a lesser charge added by the prosecution as part of a plea agreement. He was then given his agreed-upon 22½-year prison sentence, which includes credit for more than three years already served in custody.

Carter and the four shooters were associated with gangs, according to police and prosecutors. The criminal complaints say Carter and one of Davis’ accomplices, Kendall Dvontae Pruitt, began “beefing” after Carter called him a “snitch” in a social media post. Carter also was being blamed by some for not stopping a June 2021 fatal shooting at Thompson Park in West St. Paul.

Carter’s funeral three weeks later was the scene of more gunfire that claimed another man’s life and injured three others. Agustin Martinez, 28, of Crystal, was shot to death and three other people were wounded by gunfire outside Simple Traditions by Bradshaw Funeral Home on St. Paul’s West Side.

Murder charges have not been filed in Martinez’s death, which police said was gang-related. Four men were sentenced to either prison or the county jail for their roles in the gun battle.

A month after Carter’s killing, prosecutors filed murder charges against Davis, Pruitt, 28, of Minneapolis, and Delaquay Levius Williams, 30, of St. Paul. A grand jury in June of that year indicted the trio with aiding and abetting first-degree murder, aiding and abetting first-degree murder for the benefit of the gang and other charges.

Delaquay Levius Williams, Montez Dalray Davis, Kendall Dvontae Pruitt and Dai’Quan Lamar Husten (Courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

The fourth suspect, Dai’Quan Lamar Husten, 26, of St. Paul, was charged with second-degree murder six months after the three others.

In exchange for cooperating in Williams’ case, the prosecution agreed to take the first-degree murder charges off the table for Husten and Davis.

Pruitt also spoke with the prosecution prior to pleading guilty to second-degree intentional murder in September 2023. He’s serving a 30½-year prison term.

‘(Pruitt) starts the shooting, then they all shoot’

In Williams’ jury trial, which ran 10 days in December, prosecutors relied on the testimony from Husten and Davis and introduced as evidence video surveillance footage, cellphone records and a DNA swab collected from below Carter’s window that matched Williams.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Elizabeth Lamin told jurors that Williams, Davis and Pruitt walked to the north side of the home, where Carter was playing a video game in front of his window, while Husten went to the front door. “And Montez Davis told you … that Husten and Pruitt all have 9mms and that Williams has a .45,” Lamin said. “(Davis) said, ‘(Pruitt) starts the shooting, then they all shoot.’ ”

Police investigate the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Casanova Carter in the 700 block of Winslow Avenue in St. Paul on Feb. 1, 2022. (Courtesy of the St. Paul Police Department)

Jurors deliberated about five hours over two days before convicting Williams of all the charges against him. He received the mandatory sentence of life in prison on Jan. 29.

Husten’s case is scheduled for a hearing Thursday. He admitted in an August 2022 interview with police that he fired multiple shots at Carter’s front door and then ran from the house, the complaint against him says.

More shootings

Just over a month after Carter’s killing, Williams allegedly fatally shot 31-year-old Regis Jones in an alley in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood, according to a complaint in that case charging him with second-degree intentional murder.

“Police believe that Williams murdered (Jones) to keep him from talking about the murder of (Carter),” a complaint against Williams’ cousin, Dovyion Daquay Glass, says.

Related Articles

Woodbury man pleads guilty to extorting minors after coercing sexually explicit videos

St. Paul motorist sentenced for killing woman with her car in Maplewood before planned fight

Feds want Justin Eichorn to remain in custody after he allegedly lied about gun, sought to conceal evidence

Parkview Avenue residents file emergency injunction against St. Paul to save their trees

‘Her name is Darisha,’ sister of teen intentionally struck in Forest Lake says at killer’s sentencing

Glass, 34, of Roseville, pleaded guilty to being an accomplice after the fact in Jones’ killing and was sentenced to just over 7½ years in prison in June 2023.

Williams has pleaded not guilty in the case, which is ongoing with a jury trial scheduled for November.

Davis’ plea agreement this week also settled the two other Ramsey County cases against him. He admitted to being a felon in possession of a firearm stemming from a shooting of a 24-year-old woman in St. Paul during a marijuana deal on Aug. 20, 2020, and to first-degree aggravated robbery for barging into a St. Paul home with a handgun along with another man on Aug. 12, 2021. His prison sentences in those cases will run at the same time as his term for Carter’s murder.