Ramsey County attorney returns case in Friday's triple murder in St. Paul, saying more investigation is needed

The Ramsey County attorney's office said it needs more information before it can consider filing charges against a man arrested last week in connection with the triple murder of a St. Paul family in the city's Payne-Phalen neighborhood.

"The Saint Paul Police Department presented its investigative file on Jeffery Arkis Taylor to our office this morning for possible criminal charges," the county attorney's office said in a written statement Monday afternoon. "After reviewing the case, we determined further investigation is needed to establish the extent and nature of Taylor's involvement in the events surrounding the triple homicide. Therefore, we have returned the case to Saint Paul police for further investigation.

"Our hearts go out to the friends and family of those lost in this tragic incident."

Jeffery Arkis Taylor Jr., 19, was booked in the county jail Friday for probable cause on three counts of aiding and abetting second-degree murder, one count of aiding and abetting attempted second-degree murder and one count of kidnapping.

He was released just before noon Monday.

Taylor's 20-year-old half-brother, Jeffrey Jemaile Taylor, was found dead at the scene of the killings and is the suspected shooter in the incident.

St. Paul police said Monday that the Ramsey County medical examiner's office determined his death to be suicide by self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Maria McIntosh, 19, and Olivia McIntosh, 17, and their father, Wade G. McIntosh, 47, were killed about 1 a.m. Friday at an apartment complex in the 1600 block of English Street.

The girls' mother, Anita Sprosty, was critically injured in the shooting. Sprosty lived in the apartment where the killings occurred.

Jeffery A. Taylor was found after the killings hiding in a shed a few blocks away with an 18-month-old girl taken from the apartment. His brother and Maria McIntosh were the girl's parents and shared custody of her.

The toddler, Cheyenne, was not injured.

Sprosty's sister, Ida Hernandez Foster, said that Jeffrey Jemaile Taylor was involved in an intense custody dispute with Maria McIntosh.

Chao Xiong • 612-270-4708

Twitter: @ChaoStrib