Tequla Hamer and her three children had been celebrating New Year’s Eve by dancing and singing to music in the kitchen of their St. Paul home.

Just before midnight, she grabbed her phone to make a video. As she was talking to the camera, four gunshots rang out. She tried to get her kids out of the kitchen as she heard a man in the alley yelling, “(Expletive) y’all, (expletive)!” Then, more gunshots.

One of the 14 bullets fired at the home by Morris Robert Chie Ryan hit her 10-year-old son Terrente Smith in his abdomen, puncturing his bladder, small intestine and bowel before exiting his buttock. The boy, who was suffering acute blood loss, was rushed to Regions Hospital, and survived.

Morris Robert Chie Ryan (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Hamer told police her son had been playing with Legos shortly before the gunshots came through the kitchen window.

“It was a miracle that Terrente Smith is alive,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Kate Long said Friday at Ryan’s sentencing. “It is also a miracle that everyone else in that house was not hit with the barrage of bullets that Mr. Ryan fired into their kitchen window.”

Ramsey County District Judge Andrew Gordon handed down a 27¼-year prison sentence to Ryan, who was convicted by a jury of attempted murder and five other charges in July for the Dec. 31 shooting at the Frogtown neighborhood home.

“The violence that happened here was not rational,” Gordon said. “It didn’t have any rhyme or reason.”

Long argued during Ryan’s five-day trial that he targeted the home in the 700 block of Sherburne Avenue. His girlfriend and getaway driver, Kelci Marie Meyers, used to live on the same block and had been in a relationship with a cousin of Hamer’s former neighbor, who Hamer described to police as a troublemaker.

Hamer, in a victim impact statement she read in court at Ryan’s sentencing, called the shooting a “calculated, senseless act of violence forced upon myself and my children.”

“It hurts my heart and at the same time disgusts me to try to even comprehend how someone could perpetrate such a violent act upon a dwelling that you clearly know that children could be in,” Hamer said.

Gordon’s sentence was what Long had requested: 18 years and three months for attempted murder, and three years for each for the three second-degree assault convictions — all to be served consecutively.

“Morris Ryan fired the gun enough times to hit everyone in the house,” Long said. “All of those people are victims of this crime. All of them will live with the effects of Morris Ryan’s actions. And the consecutive sentencing would reflect the multiple victims of this case.”

‘Shattered sense of safety’

Terrente underwent seven-plus invasive surgeries during his weeks-long stay recovering in the hospital, Hamer said. He’s since had numerous outpatient doctor’s appointments.

Related Articles

Rash of Minnesota motorcyclist deaths continues with Burnsville, Bloomington fatalities

Woodbury death investigation: Woman identified as St. Paul middle school teacher

Judge dismisses sexual assault charge in 2003 St. Paul case, citing ‘government’s inaction’

Woodbury police, BCA investigating death after ‘medical emergency’ as apparent homicide

In new HBO docuseries, Lois Riess tells why she killed husband in Minnesota, Florida stranger

The shooting has inflicted “deep wounds and trauma” on her son, she said, “tremendously impacting his physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. This once vibrant and innocent child has been stripped of his sense of security in his everyday life and in this world.”

She said her son’s two siblings, who were 9 and 14 at the time of the shooting, which they witnessed, also face a “shattered sense of safety.”

“The grief and loss we have endured is immeasurable, and will likely shadow us for the rest of our lives,” she said. “The defendant’s actions have not only stolen our peace of mind, but has uprooted our lives as well, leaving myself and my children displaced in the last nine months.”

By holding Ryan accountable, she said, “we can begin to rebuild our sense of safety for myself and my children, and send a clear message that such atrocities, particularly against children, will not be tolerated in our communities.”

Gun recovered in Hastings

According to the criminal complaint, officers were called to the shooting just before midnight and located a trail of blood leading to an upstairs bedroom, where Terrente lay on the bed with family members applying pressure to the gunshot wound.

Hamer told police she suspected that her former neighbor was behind the shooting. She said the man, identified in the criminal complaint as LC, was “a neighborhood nuisance” and, although he’d moved out, “he continued to return, causing trouble and threatening the residents” of her home. She had a harassment restraining order against LC, though the order hadn’t been served on him.

In video surveillance from the area, an SUV could be seen circling the alley twice before the shooting and 14 gunshots could be heard. It was the only vehicle in the alley at the time.

Investigators found video surveillance from a nearby gas station that showed the SUV entering the lot just after the shooting. Police identified Ryan, of New Hope, as the person who got out of the front passenger seat and Meyers as the person who exited the driver’s seat. They purchased beverages from the gas station and used Meyers’ card to pay.

Police found seven handguns at Meyers’ home in Hastings, including a Glock 9mm that testing of a shell casing recovered from Sherburne Avenue showed fired the bullets.

Kelci Marie Meyers (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Meyers, 29, was charged with second-degree attempted murder, aiding and abetting first-degree assault and aiding and abetting drive-by shooting. A jury convicted her of all the charges in April and she was sentenced to 15 years in prison in June.

She testified at her trial that she was driving the SUV and that Ryan was leaning out of the passenger window when she heard the gunshots. She did not say she saw Ryan fire a gun.

LC, Hamer’s former neighbor, has not been charged in connection with the shooting, a spokesman for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office said Friday.

‘Total lack of accountability’

Long, while arguing in court Friday that the sentences should run consecutively, said Ryan has taken no accountability for the shooting, or provided an explanation.

“He has not even acknowledged the fact that he nearly killed three children and their mother on New Year’s Eve,” she said. “His total lack of sympathy, total lack of accountability demonstrated in his (pre-sentence interview) is disturbing and it’s alarming. At the end of the day, this is a public safety issue.”

Meanwhile, Ryan’s attorney, assistant public defender Adam Goldfine, asked the judge to grant probation or a lesser prison sentence.

Related Articles

Judge dismisses sexual assault charge in 2003 St. Paul case, citing ‘government’s inaction’

In new HBO docuseries, Lois Riess tells why she killed husband in Minnesota, Florida stranger

Nicholas Firkus murder conviction appeal goes before MN Supreme Court for second time

Ramsey County has rare contested district court races on the ballot

‘Someone was bound to get hurt’: Shooter who started Minneapolis gun battle that killed Eagan firefighter sentenced

“Your Honor, Mr. Ryan accepts the jury’s verdict and understands that he will be punished today, and wishes that the court sees the good in him,” Goldfine said. “I can note through our conversations that throughout the pendency of this matter, he has consistently shown sympathy for the young man, his siblings and his mother.”

After the jury’s verdict, Ryan requested that he await sentencing in custody at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud. He attended the hearing from the facility through Zoom.

When given the opportunity to address the court before he heard his sentence, Ryan told Gordon that he had attended program classes while he was in custody at the Ramsey County jail, and that several “letters of recommendation” from treatment centers were sent to the judge.

“But other than that, that’s the only thing I have to add on to the situation,” Ryan said.