A judge sentenced a Hastings woman to more than 15 years in prison Monday for her role in a drive-by shooting that critically wounded a 10-year-old boy as he celebrated New Year’s Eve with his family in their St. Paul home.
A jury in April found Kelci Marie Meyers guilty of all three counts of aiding and abetting against her — attempted murder, first-degree assault and drive-by shooting — in connection with the boy’s shooting in the 700 block of Sherburne Avenue in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood.
Meyers, 29, testified at trial that she was driving the sport-utility vehicle and that Morris Robert Chie Ryan was leaning out of the passenger window when she heard the gunshots, according to Ramsey County Attorney’s Office spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein. Meyers would not say that she saw Ryan fire the gun.
Ryan, 27, of New Hope, faces the same three charges. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Kelci Marie Meyers and Morris Robert Chie Ryan (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
Ramsey County District Judge Kellie Charles denied a motion from Meyers’ attorney to depart from state sentencing guidelines and gave her a prison term of 15 years and 3 months, which was the maximum she could have received under state sentencing guidelines. She received credit for 125 days already served in custody.
The boy’s mother told police she suspected that a former neighbor was behind the shooting, the charges say. The mother described the man, identified in the charges as LC, as “a neighborhood nuisance” and, although he’d moved out, “he continued to return causing trouble and threatening the residents” of her home. She had a harassment restraining order against LC, though the order hadn’t been served on him.
Meyers used to date LC’s cousin and she also lived with them on Sherburne Avenue.
At the time of the shooting, Ryan and Meyers were in a relationship, according to police.
Boy taken hospital with life-threatening injury
According to the charges, officers called to the shooting just before midnight found the boy in an upstairs bedroom with a gunshot wound to his abdomen that punctured his bladder, small intestine and bowel before exiting his buttock. He was taken to Regions Hospital “with a life-threatening injury and acute blood loss.”
The boy’s mother told police she was in the kitchen making a video to celebrate the New Year with her son and other children. Her son had been playing with Legos shortly before gunshots came through the kitchen window.
She heard a man in the alley say, “(Expletive) y’all, (expletive)” and tried to get her kids out of the kitchen, the charges say. Another child carried the boy to the upstairs bedroom.
In video surveillance from the area, an SUV could be seen circling the alley twice before the shooting and about 14 gunshots could be heard. It was the only vehicle in the alley at the time.
Investigators found video surveillance from a nearby gas station that showed the SUV entering the lot just after the shooting. Police identified Ryan as the person who exited the front passenger seat and Meyers as the person who got out from the driver’s seat, according to the charges. They purchased beverages from the gas station and used Meyers’ card to pay.
Cellphone data showed Ryan’s phone on Sherburne Avenue at the time of the shooting and then at the Lexington Parkway gas station, the charges say.
Police found seven handguns at Meyers’ home, including a Glock 9mm that testing of a shell casing recovered from Sherburne Avenue later showed fired the bullets, the charges say.
Ryan told police he didn’t “really recall what he did on New Year’s Eve.” He said he’d stayed in and watched YouTube videos at his mom’s house in New Hope. He requested a lawyer.
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