Dominique Moss was smart. He was interested in law. He was a security guard with hopes of becoming a cop. He had younger siblings that looked up to him.
Nicholas Tousley was a father of a 2-year-old girl. He was trained as an auto-technician. He grew up playing basketball and football. He was his parents’ only son.
Relatives of Moss and Tousley wept Wednesday as they described to Ramsey County District Judge Elena Ostby the lives Ronald Lee Conway took last March when he and two others drove to the Midway Motel in St. Paul looking for drugs and money.
After a brief confrontation, Moss, 23, was fatally shot outside the doorway of one of the motel’s rooms. Tousley, 30, was struck as he fled toward Snelling Avenue. He collapsed and died on the ramp leading onto Pierce Butler Road.
While Conway didn’t pull the trigger in either slaying, a jury last December decided he was the mastermind behind the plan that ultimately led to the two men’s deaths.
After listening to several tearful statements, Ostby sentenced the 31-year-old St. Paul man to 40 years in prison on two counts of second-degree murder, one intentional and one unintentional.
“I agree that Mr. Conway didn’t intend for this to happen, but that’s what happens when you have guns … When you value money over lives,” Ostby said.
“Even though you didn’t pull the trigger, you are equally responsible,” Ostby told Conway. “But for you, two people who are now dead would still be alive.”
At his trial prosecutors said Conway was “enraged” about being wronged, and on March 22, 2016, went to the Midway Motel with two others to confront Tousley over methamphetamine he’d stolen from Conway the previous day. He convinced Eric John Benner to serve as his driver. Cass Cordel O’Neal was brought along as “the shooter,” should anything go awry.
The three men huddled outside the motel room that Tousley was staying at that evening.
Suddenly, Dominique Moss returned to the room and found the men lurking outside. O’Neal pulled out his gun and began shooting. Moss and Tousley were both struck in the back.
O’Neal pleaded guilty last August to two counts of aiding and abetting intentional second-degree murder for firing the fatal shots. Benner pleaded guilty in July to two counts of aiding and abetting unintentional second-degree murder. Both are scheduled for sentencing in the coming weeks.
Conway cried and apologized Wednesday before his sentence was delivered. But he remained steadfast that the murders were not his fault.
His defense attorneys argued at trial that Conway never intended for anyone to be shot that night and that he shouldn’t be held accountable for O’Neal’s “unpredictable” decision to shoot.
“I didn’t know Cass O’Neal was going to make that decision to shoot and kill … I didn’t mean for that to happen and I’m sorry,” Conway said Wednesday.
Moss and Tousley’s relatives said during the hearing that they couldn’t shake images of their loves ones lying dead after the shootings.
“I wish I could have been there so I could have held him while he was dying,” said Nadine Moss of her son. “I wish I could have done something to make this never happen.”
“I miss his laugh, his smile, him singing country western songs … My life is incomplete without him,” she said.
Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Somah Yarney read a statement from Tousley’s parents, who live in Florida and weren’t at the sentencing.
They described their pain over his death as “horrific,” and “searing,” and said it “consumes their every thought.”
“He was a wonderful son and person who wore his heart on his sleeve,” the letter read.
They added that Tousley struggled with drug addiction after a doctor prescribed him Vicodin for a jaw injury. They said he’d made plans to go to treatment shortly before his death.
Otsby sentenced Conway to 216 months for his role in Moss’s death and 480 months for his role in Tousley’s. The sentences are to be served concurrently, totaling about 40 years in prison.