After hour of deliberation, jury finds man guilty of double murder in Minneapolis

A Hennepin County jury has convicted a Minneapolis man of murdering two young men and wounding a woman in a Lowry Hill East neighborhood shooting early last year.

Immir Fyontane Rice, 25, was found guilty Thursday in the deaths of Davante Lavar-King Reid, 29, of Minneapolis and Khalil Amer Bryant, 23, of Robbinsdale on Feb. 15, 2023. He will spend life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The jury delivered its verdict after an hour of deliberations.

The victims mothers’ rejoiced over the verdicts and praised the work of police and prosecutors. But they expressed disbelief that Rice wasn’t already in prison before he killed their sons.

Rice was prohibited from possessing a firearm because of a 2017 conviction of first-degree aggravated robbery. In 2022, he was convicted of illegal possession of a gun but was given probation and his five-year sentence was stayed.

“In my mind, had he been in jail where he was supposed to be, he would not have had access to kill my son,” said Malinda Thomas, Bryant’s mother. “My son would still be here with us. He lost his life senselessly.

“This young man [Rice] stalked him down and killed him, killed an innocent man [Lavar-King Reid], and almost killed a young lady.”

Authorities said Rice and Bryant had a falling out after the 2017 robbery and that Rice had disparaged Bryant on social media as recently as September 2022. On the day of the murders, the two crossed paths at a gas station, and Rice followed Bryant to an apartment on Colfax Avenue, where Lavar-King Reid lived.

As Bryant sat in his car with the woman, Rice shot at him 16 times. The gunfire struck her in the chest and Lavar-King Reid as he stood in front of his apartment. The woman survived, but Lavar-King Reid died a block away.

“You can’t even walk outside your house and not get murdered. It’s ridiculous,” said Lavar-King Reid’s mother, Marlena King. “I’m glad that they got him off the streets.”

King said during the trial that Rice was searching “Khalil Bryant” online within an hour of the shooting.

“This is a complete monster,” she said.

Rice also is charged with three counts of criminal sexual conduct in connection with the alleged rape of a woman December 2021 in St. Cloud. The case is pending.

Prosecutors charged him with the assault before he was charged with the double murder and they did not know he was a suspect in the killings, said Chad Perius, assistant criminal division chief of the Stearns County Attorney’s Office.

In Hennepin County, Rice was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder and prohibited person in possession of a firearm, a felony.

Jury selection began March 5, and testimony spanned about a week. Rice was the last to testify. “And he made a fool of himself,” Thomas said.

She said Senior Assistant County Attorney Patrick Lofton “did phenomenal. He tore him to shreds.”

“I feel like one of the lucky ones, all the care and time that went into this case, I cannot thank them enough,” Thomas said.

Rice was found guilty on all counts and will be sentenced April 11. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

The mothers of the two slain men said they were strangers before the trial. “This is an extended family now,” King said. “They have really truly been there.”