Shortly after two men were gunned down at a St. Paul motel this past spring, Ronald Lee Conway had words for the man who pulled the trigger, prosecutors said in Ramsey County District Court on Monday.
“I told you not to shoot until I got my money,” Conway said to Cass Cordel O’Neal once the two of them were back in the car after the shooting, according to Somah Yarney, an assistant Ramsey County attorney.
In opening arguments in the murder trial that began against Conway on Monday, prosecutors described the 31-year-old St. Paul man as an “enraged” drug dealer who was wronged and wanted his money back when he showed up at the Midway Motel on Snelling Avenue with a crew of others on March 22.
Before they arrived, Conway reportedly instructed the driver, Eric John Benner, to pick up someone he referred to as “the shooter,” Yarney said.
Conway faces two counts of aiding and abetting premeditated first-degree murder and a handful of other charges in the deaths of 23-year-old Dominique Charles Moss and 30-year-old Nicholas Bennett Tousley.
The shooter, O’Neal, pleaded guilty in August to two counts of aiding and abetting intentional second-degree murder in the slayings.
Benner pleaded guilty in July to two counts of aiding and abetting unintentional second-degree murder for his role in the shootings and will be sentenced later this month.
Conway’s defense attorneys said Monday that Conway had no idea O’Neal was going to shoot anybody that day and that he should not be held responsible for O’Neal’s actions.
His attorney went on to say that witnesses to the shooting offered inconsistent stories about what happened and, for various reasons, were motivated not to be truthful.
Conway, O’Neal and Benner reportedly went to the Midway Motel March 22 to confront Tousley in a dispute over money and drugs.
Tousley was in a room at the motel with Moss, a Como Park Senior High graduate.
Shortly after they arrived, shots were fired and Moss stumbled out of the room and died in the parking lot. Tousley also was struck. He ran toward Snelling Avenue and onto the ramp from Pierce Butler Road before collapsing and dying, court documents say.
Both men were shot in the back.
Moss left behind a twin brother, plus two brothers and two sisters. He attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls for a year after his high school graduation before returning to St. Paul and eventually becoming a security guard.
Tousley, who was known as Nick, grew up in Indian Rocks Beach, Fla., not far from Clearwater. He loved sports and played several at a private Christian school there. After high school, he graduated from a technical institute and became an auto mechanic and later a truck driver.
He had a daughter in 2014.
Relatives of Moss and Tousley testified in court Monday. Both broke down on the stand. Several people present in the courtroom also cried.
The trial is expected to resume Tuesday.