A 21-year-old already serving federal time has been given nearly eight years in state prison for his role in a robbery that turned deadly during a gun heist in North St. Paul in 2023.

Octavion Rayshawn Jones, of St. Paul, had pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court to aiding and abetting first-degree robbery in connection with the shooting of 24-year-old Anthony Robert Rojas on June 19, 2023.

Octavion Rayshawn Jones (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

The shooter, Abo Eshun Essilfie, who turned 18 three months after the killing, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November 2023 after pleading guilty to second-degree intentional murder.

Jones’ state sentence, which was handed down Friday, will run concurrent with a 2½-year term he received in June in U.S. District Court of Minnesota for possessing in 2023 a .45-caliber handgun that was equipped with an illegal auto sear — also known as a “switch” — that turns a firearm into a fully automatic weapon.

An aiding and abetting second-degree murder against Jones was dismissed as part of a plea agreement he reached with the prosecution in July.

The plea deal also covered six other cases filed against him in Ramsey County in 2022 to 2023. He admitted guilt in three of them — for first-degree aggravated robbery, motor vehicle theft and simple robbery — while the others that alleged motor vehicle theft, financial transaction card fraud, attempted simple robbery and fleeing a peace officer were dismissed.

Prosecutors initially charged three other teens in the Rojas’ killing, but later dismissed cases against two of them.

Hanging out, with guns

Officers were sent to an apartment building in the 2100 block of McKnight Road North about 6:15 p.m. June 19 on a report of someone on the third floor with a gun. Rojas was found in a hallway of his third-floor apartment with a gunshot wound to the right side of his head, and pronounced dead.

Investigators found two open and empty gun safes and a 3D printer in the apartment. They found a printer they believed was being used to create lower receivers for ghost handguns, the criminal complaints say. Such guns are privately made and untraceable because they don’t have serial numbers.

Police soon were sent to the 2100 block of Burke Avenue, which is a couple of blocks from the apartment, after a 911 caller reported that a juvenile male, who had a gun in his pocket, dropped two bags of handguns. Officers found two bags with 15 Glock 9mm handguns and an AR-style pistol.

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A confidential informant told law enforcement that “23” and Jones “were just supposed to rob the guy of the ghost guns, but 23 shot him instead” and identified “23” as Essilfie, the complaints say.

Jones told police he and four other teens had been hanging out in Rojas’ apartment and that everyone had guns and were passing them around. He said Essilfie and Rojas went into a back room and oiled some guns and that he believed Essilfie was going to trade one of his guns to Rojas for two ghost guns.

Jones said he was in the bathroom when he heard a loud bang. He said he came out and “Essilfie gave him a look and told him to grab a bag full of guns,” the complaints say.

Steven Lawrence Terry, 21, of St. Paul, was the third defendant convicted in the case. In December 2023, he pleaded guilty to possession of a gun not identified by a serial number and was given three years’ probation and no additional time beyond the 78 days he had already served in custody.