A St. Paul man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for fatally shooting a friend of his girlfriend on the city’s North End nearly three years ago.

Glenn Lee Burton, 42, admitted to assaulting his girlfriend and then shooting 56-year-old Todd Anthony Gerleman in the face at point-blank range on Dec. 21, 2020. Gerleman, of South St. Paul, died at the scene.

Ramsey County prosecutors charged Burton with second-degree intentional murder and attempted murder. An August plea agreement reduced charges to second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree assault. It also called for the 240-month sentence, which he received last week. Burton will receive credit for just over two years and 10 months he’s already served in custody.

He was civilly committed as mentally ill and dangerous in April 2021 and found incompetent to stand trial. He was deemed competent for court proceedings this February.

Todd Gerleman (Courtesy photo)

Gerleman was a former TV sportscaster working as a licensed mortgage banker. Originally from Iowa, he graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a degree in broadcast journalism and worked for 10 years as a sportscaster for three Iowa TV stations, a work biography about him says.

‘Prince Charming’ turned abusive

According to the criminal complaint, a 29-year-old woman told police she’d been dating Burton for about two weeks and he was “Prince Charming” at first, but things changed and he “became very possessive and physically abusive.”

On the night of the shooting, the woman went to her residence with Gerleman, where she was meeting other friends to repair damage that Burton had done. She saw Burton’s car was there and they left.

The woman and Gerleman drove to Burton’s mother’s home on West Larpenteur Avenue, near Rice Street. She asked Burton’s mom to call her son and get him to leave her house, saying she would otherwise have to call the police because he’d already broken into her house two or three times.

The woman was walking up the driveway when she heard Burton pull up. He ran at her, pulled her toward his car, yanked her hair and punched her multiple times.

She said she tried to get away from Burton and back into the driver’s seat of Gerleman’s car, but Burton ripped off her wig and pinned her neck to a doorframe until she had trouble breathing and saw stars.

When she was able to get in the driver’s seat, Burton looked into the car and demanded to know who Gerleman was. Gerleman told Burton he was the woman’s friend, after which Burton shouted at the woman, “(Y)ou ain’t gonna escape me — I own you!” the complaint said.

Glenn Lee Burton (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

She begged Burton to stop and tried to close the car door, but Burton pointed a handgun at her and pulled the trigger. She felt something pass by her face, and then Gerleman screamed he’d been shot and clutched his arm.

She put the car in reverse and stomped on the gas, but Burton went around to the open passenger door, stuck the gun in Gerleman’s face and pulled the trigger.

Her cell phone wasn’t working, so she drove to a nearby gas station on East Larpenteur Avenue, just off Interstate 35E, for help. Officers responded to the Arco station and found her crying hysterically, with blood on her clothing and hands. Paramedics pronounced Gerleman dead.

Police arrested Burton after finding him at a Roseville home in the 1600 block of North Chatsworth Avenue. Officers recovered a handgun from a bedroom.

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The nerves are still there for Tyson Bagent this week.

But that’s a normal part of the process for the Chicago Bears undrafted rookie, not an exception as he prepares to make his second NFL start Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium.

Bagent always has what he calls “nerved-up” energy flowing through him during game weeks when he’s off the field, a product of homing in on the details of what he needs to learn ahead of a practice or a game. When he gets on the field, that melts away into the confidence that has impressed teammates.

“On my way home from the facility, I’m just kind of thinking about what I need to study tonight,” Bagent said. “And I just am kind of eager to get it done and learned and my mind wrapped around it, so I’m able to go the next day.”

It’s understandable if Bagent is charged up this week as he transitions from earning a win in his first NFL start against the Las Vegas Raiders to preparing to play on national television Sunday night against the Chargers.

Bagent garnered a lot of attention with his story of playing at Division II Shepherd in West Virginia to starting in place of injured quarterback Justin Fields on Sunday. He completed 21 of 29 passes for 162 yards, one touchdown, no turnovers and one sack to help the Bears earn just their fifth victory in the last two seasons.

He was on the phone with someone from Huntington, W.Va., on Tuesday, who informed him that according to research, Bagent is the first born-and-bred West Virginia quarterback to start in the NFL. Bagent called it “amazing.”

“You just think about how long they’ve been playing in the NFL, how many people have gone through the NFL,” Bagent said. “So when you can still be the first to do something in this league that’s been around so long and had so many people come through it, it’s definitely an honor and something that’s really crazy and wild to think about.”

The attention is about to get bigger this week.

Fields is expected to be sidelined again as he recovers from his right thumb injury. That leaves the Bears to try to build on what Bagent did against the Raiders facing a Chargers defense that boasts what Bagent called “generational players” in outside linebacker Khalil Mack and safety Derwin James.

The Bears asked Bagent to execute a conservative game plan against the Raiders, relying on the running game and short passes. But Bagent doesn’t feel like he is boxed into such a plan, saying he’d be confident in whatever the Bears called, including more vertical passes.

“Whatever I’m asked to do from the coaches is what we’ll get done and what will happen,” he said. “So I don’t want to put any limits anywhere.”

His Bears teammates expect to see that confidence again from him this week.

“He’s just got this cool kind of swagger about him,” wide receiver DJ Moore said. “When he comes in the huddle, he’s confident, loud and makes everybody feel like, ‘OK, we’ve got a chance to go execute on this play.’ And he does that every time he steps in the huddle. Every play was pretty good last week with him, and I’m looking forward to seeing him do it again this week.”

D’Onta Foreman wins awards

Running back D’Onta Foreman carried a scepter into the Bears locker room Wednesday afternoon after winning the NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” award for “Angry Runs” for his performance against the Raiders.

Foreman was also voted by fans as the FedEx Ground NFL player of the week for his performance, which included 16 carries for 89 yards and two touchdowns and three catches for 31 yards and a touchdown.

“I definitely do think my physicality brings energy to the team,” he said. “They kind of feed off my energy when I’m going out there and doing what I do. I just want to focus on getting better each week.”

The awards came after Foreman was inactive for four weeks earlier this season because Khalil Herbert and Roschon Johnson pushed him out of the game-day roster mix. Johnson returned to practice in full Wednesday after he was out for two weeks with a concussion. But Herbert is still out with an ankle injury.

“There are a lot of other great running backs and a lot of good competition,” Foreman said. “I take nothing away from those guys. They push me each and every day to continue to excel and get better and better. It’s part of how it goes. I’ve been on three different teams, so I’ve had to prove myself to three different organizations. When I get my opportunity to do so, I feel like I handle myself and carry myself in a way that they believe and trust in me. I just want to continue to grow and build on that.”

Injury report

The Bears designated left tackle Braxton Jones to return from injured reserve after he missed five games with a neck injury. Jones was limited in practice and has 21 days to return to the active roster.

Coach Matt Eberflus said the Bears are looking at Jones’ functionality and conditioning as they determine whether he can return this week.

The Bears also designated defensive lineman Khalid Kareem (hip) to return.

Fields, right tackle Darnell Wright (shoulder/toe), safety Jaquan Brisker (illness), cornerback Terell Smith (mononucleosis) and guard Nate Davis (ankle) didn’t practice Wednesday.

Safety Eddie Jackson (foot) and offensive lineman Dan Feeney (knee) were limited.

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Pedro Martinez hurled a verbal fastball last October.

“They’re not going to have the essence of the franchise that we left, the culture that we left is going to be lost. And we don’t know when we’re going to get it back and how we’re going to get it back,” Martinez warned reporters.

“We need to bring back the culture,” the Hall of Famer reiterated at the end of September.

In hiring Craig Breslow, the Red Sox signal an attempt to restore that kind of culture, which made Boston the winningest baseball club this century.

How fitting that they made the official announcement on Wednesday, Martinez’s birthday.

By giving Breslow the keys to the kingdom, the Red Sox are repeating history and hoping to repeat history.

For the second hiring cycle in a row, they’ve eschewed leadership experience in favor of upside. Like Chaim Bloom, Breslow will be a first-timer in the driver’s seat; his most recent, highest-ranking position with the Chicago Cubs was assistant general manager and vice president of pitching.

But Breslow isn’t an unknown entity in Boston, far from it. His 12 seasons in the Majors included stints with the Red Sox in 2006-07, and 2011-15. In 2013, he posted a career-best 1.81 ERA in 2013, helping bring Boston its third World Series championship in a decade. Either by coincidence or fate, his introductory press conference is scheduled for Nov. 2, the 10th anniversary of the World Series parade.

Championships, the Red Sox claim, are still their North Star, but they need pitching to make it happen. It’s Breslow’s area of expertise; Chicago’s pitching development was woefully inadequate earlier in the decade, they won their long-awaited 2016 championship with a starting rotation full of acquired arms, not unlike a certain Boston baseball team’s most recent victory.

Finding someone to head up baseball operations wasn’t exactly a walk in the ballpark. Expectations are higher in Boston, and the safety net is virtually nonexistent.

“This is the Boston Red Sox,” team president and CEO Sam Kennedy said during the end-of-season press conference. “If you want to run a baseball organization, this is where you want to be. You want to be in Boston. Why? Because it matters here more than anywhere else.”

Who understands that better than a lifelong New Englander who’s already brought a trophy to Boston? (Other New Englanders, including Phillies GM Sam Fuld and Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes, turned down the Red Sox’s interview offers, though.)

Intelligent and thoughtful, Breslow comes highly recommended by, well, everyone. It’s about as easy to find someone with a bad word to say about Breslow as it is to find a needle in a field full of haystacks. One member of the organization described him as the “most truly decent man.”

“The praise from fellow baseball executives was impressive,” Kennedy said in the press release. “But what truly distinguished him were the resounding character references from former teammates, including David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, David Ross, Brock Holt, and Kevin Youkilis.”

Game recognizes game. Winners recognize a winner.

Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Craig Breslow winds up against the Cleveland Indians in the 10th inning of a June 15, 2014 game at Fenway Park in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)