A St. Paul 18-year-old has struck a plea deal with the prosecution and admitted in adult court that he fatally shot a 16-year-old teen during a February drug deal in the city’s North End neighborhood.

Maurice Antonio Gaynor Jr. was 17 years old when he shot Kalven Sin-Suy once on Feb. 10 near north Western Avenue and Topping Street. The Savage teen was hit in the stomach and died eight days later while hospitalized.

Maurice Antonio Gaynor Jr. (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Gaynor, who was certified to adult court in March, pleaded guilty last week to second-degree murder while committing a felony. The plea deal calls for a nearly 15-year prison term, which is the low end of state sentencing guidelines for the offense and when considering his criminal history, the plea petition says. Sentencing is set for Sept. 20.

At the time of the killing, Gaynor had three convictions for violent crimes and was on probation out of Anoka County. Less than four months before the killing, Gaynor was convicted in adult court of first-degree robbery for carjacking a man of his Toyota at a Columbia Heights restaurant in August 2022. He was put on probation for five years.

Gaynor has a juvenile record in Hennepin County. In November 2021, at age 15, he was adjudicated delinquent  — the juvenile version of being found guilty — on first-degree robbery and first-degree assault charges. He was adjudicated delinquent for a dangerous weapon discharge in January 2023.

Criminal complaint

According to the murder complaint:

Sin-Suy’s girlfriend called 911 shortly after 1 a.m. Feb. 10 and said he’d been shot near Western Avenue North and Topping Street. He was found with a gunshot wound to the abdomen, and hospital staff described his condition as “grave.” Officers found a spent shell casing near the teen.

The girlfriend told police that Sin-Suy asked her to drive him to the area of Western Avenue and Burgess Street to meet up with someone he knew. As they arrived, she said, she could hear a voice on the other end of the phone asking, “Twin, where you at?” She said her boyfriend responded, “I’m pulling up.” He got out and walked south on Western Avenue.

She said she parked on the west side of Western Avenue, north of Topping Street, and that within five minutes, he called and said, “come get me, he shot me!” She found him shot in the northeast corner of the intersection.

Kalven Sin-Suy (Courtesy of GoFundMe)

In a follow-up interview, investigators learned more from her about the suspect, identified as “50.” She said her boyfriend had told her they had been in a juvenile detention center together.

Investigators questioned her further about the Feb. 10 meet-up. She said her boyfriend insisted that she take him out around 12:30 a.m. to meet up with “50.” She said Sin-Suy sometimes sold marijuana, and that he had a Bath & Body Works bag with him when he met up with “50,” but she did not know what was inside. The bag was not with him when she found him shot, she said.

Investigators discovered Sin-Suy had been texting with Gaynor under the contact of “50” beginning on Jan. 7. Texts and several photographs refer to guns and controlled substances. On Feb. 9, messages between the two are “clear negotiations of a deal in which (Sin-Suy) is selling a gun and narcotics to (Gaynor)” for either $3,700 or $3,800, the petition says.

The texts between the two stopped at 12:54 a.m. on Feb. 10, with Sin-Suy texting Gaynor that he is “End of the block.”

Records from Gaynor’s phone number show his phone was in the area of the 800 block of Western Avenue North at the time of the shooting. Later, the phone was in the 3000 block of Taylor Street in northeast Minneapolis, which is the registered address for Gaynor’s probation through Anoka County.

Arrest on Feb. 16

Gaynor was arrested Feb. 16 at his father’s home in the 800 block of Western Avenue. In the home, officers found a backpack that had Gaynor’s Minnesota ID and rounds of .22-caliber ammunition inside. Also found were a “ghost gun,” a term meaning it was assembled from parts and had no serial number, and a Bath & Body Works bag that Sin-Suy’s girlfriend later identified as the one he left the car with before being shot.

At the Minneapolis home, in Gaynor’s bedroom, police found a .22-caliber Mossberg firearm, his school ID, a .22-caliber spent casing and a loaded .22-caliber magazine. The gun was tampered with in an attempt to erase its serial number.

In an interview in police, Gaynor initially denied knowing Sin-Suy, but then said he knew him by a different name. “(Gaynor) then stated he wasn’t going to lie and said he didn’t have anything to say,” according to the complaint.

Investigators were notified Feb. 18 that Sin-Suy had died of complications from the gunshot wound. He was survived by his parents, a brother and sister, according to a GoFundMe post.

“You had an aura and energy to you that just made everyone around you so happy,” his obituary read. “You were the life of the party. Leave it to you, to say and do the most off-the-wall things that left us looking at each other and then bursting into laughter. You brought so much joy into our lives.”

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