A 23-year-old man has received a 12-year sentence for killing a 59-year-old man on a St. Paul street with gunfire that he said was intended for someone with a knife.
12-year term for killing of man in St. Paul with gunfire the shooter said was meant for someone else
The defendant told police he tried to shoot a man who punctured a tire on his vehicle.
July 13, 2023 at 7:55PM
Payton L. Wood, 23, of St. Paul, was sentenced Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree unintentional murder in connection with the July 1, 2022, shooting of Jeffery C. Foss, of Moose Lake, Minn., in the 600 block of N. Dale Street.
With credit for time in custody since his arrest, Woods is expected to serve the first seven years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
According to the criminal complaint:
Medics arrived shortly after 3 a.m., found Foss on the ground and declared him dead.
Exterior surveillance video showed Foss and another person walking on the sidewalk near the building where Wood lived. The other person started running while holding a knife. Wood "came around the corner of the building and fired one shot from a handgun" that struck Foss.
Earlier that evening, according to a witness, Wood and the man who was with Foss had fought in a garden near Wood's apartment over ownership of liquor bottles and cigarette packs.
Wood's combatant punctured a tire on Wood's SUV with a knife. Wood responded by firing one shot and saying, "I hit him," according to the charges.
He explained to police that after his tire was punctured, he fired one shot at the man with the knife. He estimated that the man was 5 feet away from him. Instead, the shot hit Foss.
"Wood said he feared the man was going to stab him or come back later and do something," the charges read.
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