Teen Pleads Guilty To Shooting, Killing Other Teen

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 16-year-old boy pleaded guilty to shooting and killing another boy his age in a south Minneapolis alley earlier this month, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said.

Malcolm Maghundi Jackson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on June 19 in connection with the death of Trequan Sykes. According to the attorney's office, Jackson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder to avoid a first-degree murder charge, which would mean, if he were convicted, life in prison without parole.

In court, while being questioned by his lawyer, Jackson said he was walking home from school on June 1 when the shooting happened. A block from his house, he saw people he wanted to avoid sitting on a porch of a home located on the 2900 block of Bloomington Avenue South. One of those people was Sykes' brother, whom Jackson had lost to in a fight two weeks earlier. So Jackson took the alley, where he said he ran into Sykes.

Jackson said the two talked before he "shot the gun once," and then again. Sykes suffered two gunshot wounds to his back.

Tom Arneson, managing attorney for the Juvenile Prosecution Division, called the case tragic.

"One 16-year-old boy is dead and another 16-year-old boy is going to prison for a long time."

Jackson is slated to be sentenced on July 24. He has no criminal record, and sentencing guidelines suggest he receive a 25-and-a-half-year sentence. Sykes' family, however, is unhappy with the deal; they wanted prosecutors to try for a first-degree murder charge.