ST PAUL, Minn. — The man convicted of fatally shooting four people in St. Paul and then abandoning an SUV in a western Wisconsin cornfield with their bodies inside will serve a prison sentence of more than 103 years for his crimes.
Antoine Suggs was sentenced Monday in Ramsey County Court after being found guilty on four counts of murder on March 31. The 40-year-old defendant faced the possibility of 160 years in prison on the convictions, according to state sentencing recommendations.
Judge JaPaul J. Harris listened as nine separate people walked to a podium and spoke of their deep sense of loss, then levied a combined sentence of 1,244 months. The four second-degree murder counts will be served consecutively, keeping Suggs behind bars for a minimum of just over 69 years.
The bodies of Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, Loyace Foreman III, Matthew Isiah Pettus and Jasmine Christine Sturm were discovered Sept. 12, 2021, inside an SUV left in a cornfield in rural Dunn County. Authorities say they all died from gunshot wounds.
Those who delivered victim impact statements in court Monday were universal in their call for consecutive sentences so Suggs would be imprisoned for the rest of his life. The parents of victim Loyace Foreman III spoke of his artistic talents and building skills, his love for his children and all the life events they will miss. "Lives were taken, many of them, and Mr. Suggs still has his life,” said his father, Loyace Foreman Jr.
Angela Sturm, mother of victims Jasmine Christine Sturm and Matthew Isiah Pettus, described trying to fill the "gaping hole" in her life by filling it with activities, hoping exhaustion would negate the empty feeling she lives with. Sturm told the court it doesn't work.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t cry. Being alone with my thoughts is very hard," Sturm explained. "I miss their voices, I have this irrational fear that I am going to forget what they look and sound like.”
When given his chance to speak before sentencing, Suggs described himself as the victim in the encounter, claiming the four were trying to rob him and he had no choice but to defend himself. “I had no beef, no quarrel, no animosity with any one of them,” Suggs said, claiming he was a victim of their greed and aggression. “Their actions were the cause of their untimely demise.”
Judge Harris took a 15-minute break to consider what loved ones said in their impact statements, then returned to the courtroom to impose sentencing. He told the victims that they're "never going to get an answer as to why Mr. Suggs did what he did," but maintained it was clear during the duration of his trial that Suggs expressed no remorse for what had happened. Harris then levied the 103-year sentence, with all four counts being served consecutively. “Each one of these individuals…. deserves that you serve time for each one of them.”
Harris then directly addressed Suggs. "You cast blame on others, and this a sentence you now have to take responsibility for.”
In the criminal complaint against him, prosecutors said Suggs told his biological father Darren Osborne he "snapped and shot a couple of people" in a vehicle on Seventh Street in St. Paul on that fateful night in September of 2021. After Suggs told him what had occurred, authorities say Osborne followed Suggs to Wisconsin in a separate vehicle, leaving a Mercedes SUV with the bodies inside behind. Osborne and Suggs then returned to Minnesota.
Osborne, for his part, denied knowing there were bodies in the vehicle that was left in the cornfield. He is serving a four-year sentence after pleading guilty for his role in the case.
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