A southern Minnesota man whose gun was used by a 4-year-old boy who fatally shot his little brother won’t serve jail time under a plea deal reached Monday.
Plea deal spares jail for Minnesotan whose gun was used by boy, 4, to fatally shoot little brother
If the plea agreement is accepted by the judge, the conviction would come off Colton Mammenga’s record once he completes probation without a violation.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
March 18, 2024 at 7:58PM
Colton D. Mammenga, 33, of Welcome agreed to plead guilty in Martin County to felony endangerment of a child in connection with the Oct. 15 shooting of 2-year-old Matthew Alshaikhnasser, which occurred in a moving pickup truck.
The plea deal calls for Mammenga to receive no jail time and receive a stay of adjudication, meaning the conviction would come off his criminal record if he abides by the terms of his probation. Those terms would include speaking at events about the negligent storage of guns.
Also as part of the agreement, prosecutors said they will dismiss manslaughter charges, the most serious of the counts, and a negligent firearms storage count.
Judge Michael Trushenski must still sign off on the deal at sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.
At the time of the shooting, Mammenga was in the pickup truck with the two boys and their mother, who was in a relationship with Mammenga.
A deputy found the pickup outside Fairmont, Minn., and pulled it over to the shoulder, the criminal complaint read. Mammenga got out of the vehicle holding Matthew, who had a gunshot wound to the top of his head, the complaint continued.
Mammenga performed CPR before an ambulance crew arrived and took over. He told law enforcement the 4-year-old child accidentally shot Matthew while the truck was in motion and that the gun was still in the back seat with the older child, the complaint read.
The injured boy was taken by helicopter to a Rochester hospital, where he died two days later.
Deputies found a plastic baggie full of 9-millimeter rounds next to the 4-year-old’s car seat, a gun holster and ammunition “strewn about,” the complaint read.
Three rifles, ammunition and magazines for those weapons were also seized from the truck by law enforcement, according to court records filed by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.
The 4-year-old told a deputy he got the gun from the front seat when the boys were left alone in the truck while Mammenga and the mother went inside to get something, according to the complaint. Mammenga told police he had left his gun in the passenger-side door pocket before going inside.
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