A St. Paul teen has been sentenced to 12½ years in prison for a deadly shooting during a marijuana deal in the city’s Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood.

Deshawn Houston, who turned 18 in June, shot 23-year-old Devon A. Johnson while trying to rob Johnson’s friend during the March 14 drug deal. Johnson, a father of six young children, died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

On Monday, Houston was certified to adult court and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder while committing a felony, admitting that he fired a long-barreled revolver four to five times at Johnson’s SUV as he was driving away. Ramsey County District Judge Jacob Kraus then gave Houston the sentence, which was part of an agreement with the prosecution.

Devon A. Johnson (Courtesy of the family)

Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, said Wednesday the length of the prison term fell within state sentencing guidelines because Houston had no previous felony convictions.

“It’s almost as if it’s a slap in the face,” Johnson’s mother, Monique Johnson, said Wednesday of the sentence. “On one hand, to me, it can never be enough time to spend for my son’s life to be taken. And especially that his life was taken just because someone decided he was going to do it that day.”

The shooting

According to the charges, multiple people called 911 about 11 p.m. on March 14, reporting hearing gunshots, vehicles crashing and two to four people running from the area in Dayton’s Bluff.

Officers found broken glass in the parking lot of Wilson Hi-Rise on Wilson Avenue near Johnson Parkway. There were two vehicles in the area that had heavy front-end damage, and police determined the vehicle that struck them was no longer there.

A short time later and about a mile away, officers saw a Jeep that also had heavy front-end damage and was being driven erratically in the area of Minnehaha Avenue and Frank Street. Officers stopped the vehicle and the driver said his friend had been shot and was in the backseat.

Officers gave CPR to Johnson until St. Paul Fire Department medics arrived. They attempted to resuscitate Johnson, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police found suspected marijuana in plastic bags, a digital scale and $346 in the Jeep, the charges said.

Johnson’s friend later told police he was initially too scared to tell them what happened, but “now wanted to be truthful.” He said a man he communicated with on Facebook Messenger wanted to buy marijuana from him and sent him the address on Wilson Avenue.

Johnson and his friend pulled up. The marijuana buyer approached with someone they didn’t know, who police later identified as Houston.

Johnson’s friend said he and the buyer were talking about the marijuana sale when Houston pointed a gun at him and told him to hand over the marijuana. He said he grabbed the gun when the teen put it in front of his face while pointing it at Johnson, who was the driver. “After a short struggle, the gun went off” while Johnson began to drive away.

Johnson crashed into a couple of vehicles and his friend was able to get the vehicle to stop, put Johnson in the backseat and start to drive him to the hospital.

The buyer later said he’d been trying to digitally send money to Johnson’s friend for the marijuana and didn’t know Houston would try to rob the man and he yelled at him to stop.

Another person, though, told police that the buyer, Houston and two other people “started talking about setting up a robbery.” The person later saw the buyer and described him as “hysterical over what happened.” Houston didn’t return to the apartment where they’d been.

Investigators learned that Houston and another person, who was said to have a long-barreled revolver that Houston used in the shooting, were arrested March 29 in St. Cloud. Law enforcement collected several cellphones and a firearm, which was not a revolver.

St. Paul police tried to talk to Houston and the other person, who “declined to provide substantive statements to investigators,” the court document said.

Houston was originally charged April 23 by juvenile petition with intentional second-degree murder, not premeditated; unintentional second-degree murder while committing a felony; and two counts of attempted second-degree murder.

A mother’s grief

Johnson’s mother said he lived with her in Robbinsdale and had been working as a personal care attendant, taking care of his grandmother and another person.

He had played basketball and football at Minneapolis’ Patrick Henry High School. He signed a letter of intent to attend Mesabi Range College and play football, though he didn’t go because he became a father, his mother said.

She said she is now left with “picking up the pieces,” including raising two of her son’s children that he had custody of and are now ages 5 and 10 months old.

She gave a victim impact statement at Wednesday’s sentencing, telling the court that Houston “not only killed my son that night but he killed a part of all of us in our family.”

She said her grandchildren “will never remember or know their father, will never know the sound of his voice. But more than anything, they will never feel his beating heart.”

Related Articles

Judge rejects Donald Trump’s latest demand to step aside from hush money criminal case

2 men dead in related shootings in Blaine, Anoka County sheriff reports

Drunk driver spared prison for deadly pedestrian crash in Columbia Heights

Minnesota House candidate, wife charged over stolen campaign signs; DFL committee rescinds endorsement

Wisconsin woman charged after baby at Woodbury daycare suffers broken leg