Man charged in fatal shooting on St. Paul's Raspberry Island

A man arrested on suspicion of shooting a 20-year-old to death on St. Paul's Raspberry Island has been charged with murder.

Romello Ifonlaja-Randle of Maplewood was arrested and jailed on Wednesday in the fatal shooting of Marcus Anthony Baker Jr. during an argument Aug. 14. Prosecutors with the Ramsey County Attorney's Office charged Ifonlaja-Randle on Friday with two counts of murder. Bail was set at $100,000 during his first court appearance Friday afternoon.

According to charging documents:

Baker was in the back seat of a Chevrolet Suburban playing music by a local rap artist affiliated with East Side gangs. A witness who was in the Suburban said that a man approached Baker and told him to turn the music off. He refused, asking the man if he was from the opposing West Side gang. That man, later identified as Ifonlaja-Randle, said he was from the "dub."

"Officers know that rap songs are commonly used by gangs to taunt or mock their opposition," the charging documents read. "In St. Paul, there have been multiple murders resulting from an East vs. West feuds."

After Baker refused to turn the music off, witnesses said that Ifonlaja-Randle hit Baker in the face. When Baker tried to get out of the vehicle, Ifonlaja-Randle allegedly shot him — fleeing with others from the scene.

Officers responding to Raspberry Island that night found a "chaotic scene" with spent bullet casings, two unopened tequila bottles, and Baker in the Suburban with three gunshot wounds. Baker was transported to Regions Hospital, where he died.

His death marks the 23rd homicide in St. Paul this year.

Investigators learned that the tequila bottles belonged to the suspects, tracking the bottles to a Target store in West St. Paul. The store held records about who purchased them, and surveillance footage showed Ifonlaja-Randle exiting the store a day before the shooting. He left in a silver Volkswagen — the same vehicle witnesses placed at the murder scene, documents state.

Phone records also suggested that Ifonlaja-Randle and an associate were on Raspberry Island at the time of the shooting, charges said.

An Aug. 30 search warrant in Brooklyn Center led to the arrest of Ifonlaja-Randle and his associate, and officers found handguns and counterfeit oxycodone pills at their location, charges state.

Ifonlaja-Randle denied knowing his associate or anything about Baker's murder, and refuted knowledge of a "ghost gun" that investigators recovered from the scene, documents state.

Analysis of the gun's bullet casings connected it with casings found near Baker, and further analysis by the Bureau for Criminal Apprehension found Baker and Ifonlaja-Randle's DNA on the weapon, documents said.

Court records said Ifonlaja-Randle has three previous felony convictions, making him ineligible to own a gun. Two were for aggravated robberies, and one was for an assault. He was also charged with illegally possessing a firearm in connection with a 2022 case in which he is suspected of running from police after fleeing from a Cadillac that he was in crashed into a tree.