Background: Dejuan Hemphill with his mother (GoFundMe). Inset: Jehovah Nelson (Ramsey County Sheriff's Office).
A 19-year-old Minnesota man will spend more than a decade behind bars for murdering a 24-year-old man as he walked down the street with his cousins.
Jehovah Nelson pleaded guilty in October to second-degree murder with intent in the death of Dejuan Hemphill in St. Paul. On Tuesday, a judge sentenced Nelson to 12 1/2 years in prison.
According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, St. Paul police patrolling the area of Rice Street and University Avenue shortly before 5 p.m. Nov. 5, 2024, heard three or four shots. They then saw a man running away. Officers tracked down the man they saw who told them he was walking in the area with his two cousins when someone opened fire on them.
Cops found Hemphill suffering from a gunshot wound to the back of his head. Paramedics rushed Hemphill to the hospital where a doctor said the gunshot wound was "one of the worst she had worked on," per the affidavit. He died 10 days later.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
Hemphill's cousin told police they were walking in the area when they heard three gunshots from behind them. Hemphill went down. The cousin tried to pick up Hemphill but the attempt was futile.
Surveillance video showed the cousins had been at a liquor store moments before the shooting. Nelson's co-defendant, Kenneth Terry, now 19, was in the store at the same time and watched the trio walk outside. Witnesses said the suspects targeted the victims because Terry was upset one of them was speaking with the mother of his child. Terry and a man later identified as Nelson, who was wearing a Michael Myers mask from the "Halloween" movie franchise, began following the three men who were "unaware that they were being hunted," cops wrote.
Video showed that Nelson entered a shooting position and fire at the back of his head.
Detectives obtained a warrant for Nelson's Snapchat account which revealed he had been bragging about the shooting.
"Pick yo homie up go check dude on rice head tap b—," Nelson wrote with a gunshot and explosion emojis.
Nelson also asked Terry about the murder weapon.
"Please tell me u sold it," Nelson asked.
Police arrested Nelson and Terry in February. Terry pleaded guilty to second-degree murder without intent last month and is slated to be sentenced on Dec. 30.
