A St. Paul man was sentenced to probation and community service Friday for killing his girlfriend’s dog after he got angry that the German shepherd took their child’s hot dog and then bit him when he hit it with a baseball bat.

Rondie Antwon King (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

In October, Ramsey County District Judge Joy Bartscher convicted 51-year-old Rondie Antwon King of felony mistreating an animal for shooting the dog in the head in a Dayton’s Bluff alley on June 13, 2021. King had opted for a trial based on stipulated facts and evidence.

King’s attorney, assistant public defender Stephen Grigsby, had conceded that King killed the dog, which was named Rocco, but argued the state did not prove it was unjustified.

Officers that responded to a report of shots fired in the 1000 block of Wakefield Avenue found the dog dead in the alley with a single gunshot wound to the head. A 9-mm spent shell casing was next to him.

Video surveillance showed a white Buick SUV speeding down the alley right after the gunshot. The SUV belonged to King’s girlfriend.

She told police that King had been drinking alcohol and became enraged with Rocco after it took a hot dog from their 4-year-old son. She said King attacked Rocco with a baseball bat, causing the dog to bite him in the arm.

She said she intervened to protect Rocco and drove around all night to keep King from further injuring or killing the dog.

About a week before Rocco’s killing, King was released from supervised release in connection with a 2010 first-degree assault conviction that landed him a 12-year prison term. Most people sent to prison in Minnesota serve two-thirds of their sentence in custody and the remaining on supervised release in the community.

‘Hunted down’ the dog

After a presentence investigation, the county’s probation department recommended that King receive a stayed 1½-year prison sentence.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Kathryn Long said Friday in court that she supports that sentence, but added the state’s position is that he should serve some time in the county workhouse.

“Your Honor, this was really an act of cruelty,” Long said. “Mr. King hunted down his girlfriend’s dog. This was a loved pet that did not belong to him. His girlfriend stayed up all night trying to keep the dog away from him.”

Long noted how text messages between King and his girlfriend, which were submitted as evidence in the trial, showed that she had pleaded with him not to kill the dog.

“But he took the dog from her, and he shot the dog in an alley behind an occupied home, causing the resident to call 911,” Long said.

When Judge Bartscher gave King his chance to speak before he heard his sentence, King said he “jumped in front of the kids before that dog could kill them.” He showed the judge scars on his arm.

Grigsby, his attorney, then interjected, telling Bartscher that King had been bitten “very badly” by the dog multiple times before.

“But we did not have a jury trial … the court never got that,” Grigsby said. “I relied exclusively on my notion that under that statute, in my experience, there is no possibility of a conviction.”

Bartscher told Grigsby that she understood his argument, but said King’s decisions, under the “circumstances and the facts of this case, were wrong.”

If King believed the dog was going to harm the children, Bartscher said, he could have called child protection or even police.

“You could have done anything other than several hours later grabbing that dog, bringing the dog into an alley and shooting the dog in the head,” she said.

Bartscher then put King on supervised probation for two years and ordered him to complete 50 hours of community work service within six months. Conditions of probation include that he does not own or be in control of any animals, and that he cooperates with visits from Animal Control.

Bartscher noted how the dog’s owner had filed a letter to the court indicating that she wanted King to receive mental health programming, which the judge also ordered.

“I don’t think that she wanted him to go to jail,” Bartscher said. “I think she wants him to get the help that he needs so that he can address whatever was going on when this incident occurred.”

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By BRIAN WITTE, Associated Press

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The U.S. Naval Academy will no longer consider race, ethnicity or sex as a factor for admission to the service institution, a response to an executive order by President Donald Trump, according to federal court documents made public Friday.

The change in policy was made in February by Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, the academy’s superintendent, in response to an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in January, according to a court filing by the U.S. Justice Department in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The president’s order on Jan. 27 said that “every element of the Armed Forces should operate free from any preference based on race or sex.” It also directed the secretary of defense to conduct an internal review with respect to all “activities designed to promote a race- or sex-based preferences system,” including reviews at the service academies.

“Under revised internal guidance issued by the Superintendent on Feb. 14, 2025, neither race, ethnicity, nor sex can be considered as a factor for admission at any point during the admissions process, including qualification and acceptance,” according to the court filing made public Friday.

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The decision comes after a federal judge ruled in December that the academy could continue considering race in its admissions process. In that case, the judge found that military cohesion and other national security factors mean the school should not be subjected to the same standards as civilian universities.

During a two-week bench trial in September, attorneys for the academy argued that prioritizing diversity in the military makes it stronger, more effective and more widely respected.

The case against the policy was brought by the group Students for Fair Admissions, which was appealing the judge’s decision.

The Justice Department asked in the filing on Friday to suspend the current briefing schedule in the case while the parties consider the change in the academy’s policy.

‘The parties require a reasonable amount of time to discuss the details of the Academy’s new policy and to consider the appropriate next steps for this litigation, including whether this litigation is now moot and, if so, whether the district court judgment should be vacated,” the Justice Department wrote.

Students for Fair Admissions also brought the lawsuit challenging affirmative action that resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2023.

The high court’s conservative majority broadly prohibited the consideration of race and ethnicity in college admissions, ending a long-standing practice meant to boost opportunities for historically marginalized groups and sending shock waves through higher education. But it carved out a potential exemption for military academies, suggesting that national security interests could affect the legal analysis.

Students for Fair Admissions later sued the Annapolis-based Naval Academy, challenging the exemption. But Judge Richard Bennett rejected their arguments, saying that the school had “established a compelling national security interest in a diverse officer corps.”

Attorneys for the group argued during trial that prioritizing minority candidates is unfair to qualified white applicants and that cohesion should arise from other sources such as training and command structure.

The academy argued in that case that its admissions process considers many factors, including grades, extracurricular activities, life experience and socioeconomic status, according to court testimony. Race often played no role in the process, but sometimes it came under consideration in a “limited fashion,” attorneys for the academy wrote in court papers.

The St. Paul City Council convened a special meeting Friday to appoint a seventh member for the next four months who will fill the Ward 4 seat vacated by Mitra Jalali.

But after about three minutes, following an awkward exchange between a council member, a member of the city attorney’s office and the council president, the six elected officials abruptly exited the council chamber without appointing anyone.

The quiet blow-up of sorts follows a tortured appointment process that has called into question the ability of the council to complete basic tasks, like filling an open seat.

Still, the stakes are high. The new appointee could cast potentially tie-breaking votes in issues ranging from rent control and public safety to city budget matters.

The council interviewed four finalists last week — artist and community organizer Sean Lim, art conservator and neighborhood advocate Lisa Clare Nelson, nonprofit consultant Melissa Martinez-Sones and clean energy advocate Matt Privratsky — with the stated intent of choosing the interim Ward 4 council member on March 26.

Council President Rebecca Noecker sponsored a draft resolution that kept the name of the chosen person blank for the council to fill in together, but she was unable to attend Wednesday’s meeting and instead took bereavement leave.

In Noecker’s absence on Wednesday, Council Member Saura Jost motioned to amend the draft resolution and add Privratsky as the council choice, a decision that was approved 3-2 after strong criticism about the process from Council Member Nelsie Yang and Vice President HwaJeong Kim, who chaired the meeting.

It would take four votes to undo Jost’s amendment — an unlikely outcome — and as of Wednesday evening, Privratsky appeared primed to be appointed as the interim council member. The resolution was scheduled to be finalized Friday.

Amendment ‘did not meet that standard’

Instead, Noecker opened Friday’s meeting by saying it’s been her goal to maintain a transparent appointment process worthy of the public’s trust, and “unfortunately this week, actions were taken that did not meet that standard and did not reflect well on (this) council.”

“That action was a surprise to several council members,” added Noecker, noting one of the four finalists had withdrawn their name from consideration as a direct result. In an email to a reporter on Friday, Martinez-Sones confirmed she had withdrawn herself from the process.

Noecker then motioned to withdraw the draft resolution she had previously introduced, and said the appointment process will be revisited next Wednesday.

“It’s my understanding that … I would be the sponsor of this item,” said Council Member Saura Jost, cutting in.

A representative of the city attorney’s office told Jost she was mistaken and had already been told otherwise, and Noecker then closed the meeting abruptly, saying: “This item is being withdrawn and this meeting is adjourned.”

Jalali stepped down from city employment on March 8.

Under the city charter, the council is expected to appoint a council member to fill a vacancy within 30 days, which would presumably be April 7. If they fail to do so, the mayor then has 10 days under the charter to appoint “a qualified voter of the ward,” which would presumably be April 17.

The interim appointee will serve through the Aug. 12 election, when voters in the Ward 4 neighborhoods of Hamline-Midway, Merriam Park, St. Anthony Park and portions of Macalester-Groveland and Como will choose Jalali’s official successor through 2028. Several residents have come forward as likely candidates in that election.

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