Teh One Who Knocks
06-26-2012, 05:02 PM
By Emily Gurnon - Twin Cities Pioneer Press
http://i.imgur.com/xDfNU.jpg
Adrian Flowers laughed and smiled throughout his sentencing in the murder of Dekota Galtney.
For the dead man's mother, it was too much.
"He comes here, laughing all the time, like nothing happened," said Jeanine Galtney, stifling tears as she stood before Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Mott.
Galtney's sister said the family is reminded of him every time they look in the faces of his three children. Pamela Watson said she agreed with their mother that Flowers deserved more time in prison than the 8-1/2 years he was sentenced to on Monday, June 25.
In the end, Mott sentenced Flowers, 22, of St. Paul, to about two years less than what the prosecution and defense had agreed would be the maximum. The defense asked for the 8-1/2 years.
The judge said he gave Flowers the lower sentence because of his early guilty plea, his waiver of a potential self-defense or defense-of-others claim, his expression of remorse and his lack of a serious criminal record.
Mott noted that he received a letter from Flowers, via his attorney, that was unusual compared with communications he has received from other defendants.
"It's much more articulate, much more thoughtful, with a much more positive approach to your future in terms of what you hope to accomplish," Mott said.
After the hearing, members of Flowers' family said Flowers is deaf in one ear and has hearing loss in the other. He compensates for it by laughing, and has done so since he was a child, they
said. He also has attention-deficit disorder, one family friend said.
Flowers was given credit for 199 days already served in custody, and the judge ordered him to pay $1,550 in restitution to the victim's mother and almost $2,000 to the Minnesota Crime Victims Reparations Board.
Flowers pleaded guilty April 20 to second-degree unintentional murder. His family and friends believe he was not the shooter in the dispute that killed Galtney. He submitted an Alford plea, meaning that he did not admit guilt but agreed that the state has enough evidence to likely convict him at trial.
There remain many unanswered questions.
The gun used in the shooting was never found. Flowers claimed earlier in the case that Galtney had a weapon, too, according to the county attorney's office, but police said that shell casings found at the scene were from only one gun. And there is a contradiction between the number of men Flowers' girlfriend, Jade Larson, said were in the car with her just before the shooting and what Flowers and others said.
Galtney was 24 when he died at Regions Hospital minutes after the Sept. 28 shooting.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the case:
Two groups of men were involved in a dispute earlier in the day of the shooting.
Then, shortly before the gunfire, Larson got out of the vehicle Flowers was in at her aunt's house in St. Paul.
When Larson's aunt asked if he was a Crip, because of a blue bandana he was wearing, he identified himself as a "G.D.," or member of the Gangster Disciples.
Just before the shooting, Galtney and two of his friends were in a black Chevrolet Impala stopped at East Fourth Street facing east at Bates Avenue when they saw two men on the corner across the street, one told police.
Galtney opened the door and was getting out of the Impala when one of the men opened fire on him with a handgun.
Police later identified the shooter as Flowers, whom the friends of the victim saw earlier that day in a black and silver Dodge Magnum.
Flowers was picked up Dec. 10, when the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and St. Paul police arrested him at an Extended Stay America Hotel in Bloomington.
Larson was charged with aiding an offender.
Two other men with Flowers at or near the time of the shooting, according to the complaint, were Nicholas John Kruse and Christopher Jovan Bruce. They have not been charged.
http://i.imgur.com/xDfNU.jpg
Adrian Flowers laughed and smiled throughout his sentencing in the murder of Dekota Galtney.
For the dead man's mother, it was too much.
"He comes here, laughing all the time, like nothing happened," said Jeanine Galtney, stifling tears as she stood before Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Mott.
Galtney's sister said the family is reminded of him every time they look in the faces of his three children. Pamela Watson said she agreed with their mother that Flowers deserved more time in prison than the 8-1/2 years he was sentenced to on Monday, June 25.
In the end, Mott sentenced Flowers, 22, of St. Paul, to about two years less than what the prosecution and defense had agreed would be the maximum. The defense asked for the 8-1/2 years.
The judge said he gave Flowers the lower sentence because of his early guilty plea, his waiver of a potential self-defense or defense-of-others claim, his expression of remorse and his lack of a serious criminal record.
Mott noted that he received a letter from Flowers, via his attorney, that was unusual compared with communications he has received from other defendants.
"It's much more articulate, much more thoughtful, with a much more positive approach to your future in terms of what you hope to accomplish," Mott said.
After the hearing, members of Flowers' family said Flowers is deaf in one ear and has hearing loss in the other. He compensates for it by laughing, and has done so since he was a child, they
said. He also has attention-deficit disorder, one family friend said.
Flowers was given credit for 199 days already served in custody, and the judge ordered him to pay $1,550 in restitution to the victim's mother and almost $2,000 to the Minnesota Crime Victims Reparations Board.
Flowers pleaded guilty April 20 to second-degree unintentional murder. His family and friends believe he was not the shooter in the dispute that killed Galtney. He submitted an Alford plea, meaning that he did not admit guilt but agreed that the state has enough evidence to likely convict him at trial.
There remain many unanswered questions.
The gun used in the shooting was never found. Flowers claimed earlier in the case that Galtney had a weapon, too, according to the county attorney's office, but police said that shell casings found at the scene were from only one gun. And there is a contradiction between the number of men Flowers' girlfriend, Jade Larson, said were in the car with her just before the shooting and what Flowers and others said.
Galtney was 24 when he died at Regions Hospital minutes after the Sept. 28 shooting.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the case:
Two groups of men were involved in a dispute earlier in the day of the shooting.
Then, shortly before the gunfire, Larson got out of the vehicle Flowers was in at her aunt's house in St. Paul.
When Larson's aunt asked if he was a Crip, because of a blue bandana he was wearing, he identified himself as a "G.D.," or member of the Gangster Disciples.
Just before the shooting, Galtney and two of his friends were in a black Chevrolet Impala stopped at East Fourth Street facing east at Bates Avenue when they saw two men on the corner across the street, one told police.
Galtney opened the door and was getting out of the Impala when one of the men opened fire on him with a handgun.
Police later identified the shooter as Flowers, whom the friends of the victim saw earlier that day in a black and silver Dodge Magnum.
Flowers was picked up Dec. 10, when the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and St. Paul police arrested him at an Extended Stay America Hotel in Bloomington.
Larson was charged with aiding an offender.
Two other men with Flowers at or near the time of the shooting, according to the complaint, were Nicholas John Kruse and Christopher Jovan Bruce. They have not been charged.