A St. Paul man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in a shooting that left a 26-year-old dead last summer.
Antoine Jamar Grasty, 22, was sentenced in Ramsey County District Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty in February to one count of aiding and abetting second-degree murder in the death of Robert Molin Jr.
After Grasty flashed a handgun at Molin’s younger brother in the parking lot, Molin’s brother drove away and called Molin.
Molin met up with him on Maryland Avenue in a Nissan Maxima. His brother was in a different vehicle.
After the two saw Grasty and the others pull out of the liquor store parking lot in a Chevrolet Equinox, they got in line behind them, first Molin in the Maxima, followed by his brother in his vehicle, legal documents say.
Video footage captured on the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s surveillance system showed what happened next. As the Chevrolet appeared to stop at a red light, Molin and Molin’s brother pulled up in their respective vehicles on either side of it, according to court records.
When the light turned green, the driver of the Chevrolet took off and Molin’s brother pulled over, but Molin sped up alongside the Chevrolet.
That’s when Grasty fired a handgun out the Chevrolet’s passenger window, killing Molin, according to the criminal complaint later filed against Grasty.
The shooting happened in the eastbound lanes of Maryland Avenue between Phalen Boulevard and Barclay Street.
Molin, who grew up in the Twin Cities, was a hard-working man with a great sense of humor who was dedicated to his younger siblings and his 3-year-old daughter, one of his relatives said after his death.
The woman said Molin was trying to protect his little brother when he was shot.
Some of Molin’s family spoke at Grasty’s sentencing hearing Tuesday, sharing with the judge the impact of Molin’s death on their lives.
When it was his turn to address the court, Grasty expressed remorse for what he’d done, according to his attorney, John Thomas Barragry.
“He got to hear the impact statements from (the victim’s family) and I think that hit home,” Barragry said. “It was a lapse in judgement … He didn’t use this head and so he’s sorry for all that happened and sorry to his family and sorry to the victim’s family.”
