Larry Earl Jiles Jr. cooked in the Twin Cities for over a decade. He owned a gourmet takeout business in Centerville called Chef Hot Hands, which was also his nickname.
But the business was not just about meals, Jiles’ sister said Friday at the sentencing of his killer, John Lee Edmundson, who received a mandatory minimum 40-year prison term.
“It was about love, connections and his energy that made everyone feel good,” Chanel Jiles said.
Larry Jiles Jr., left, and Troy Kennedy (Courtesy of the family)
Jiles, 34, and Edmondson’s cousin, Troy Robert Kennedy, 37, were fatally shot outside a senior-living apartment building in St. Paul on Feb. 25, 2023, following a repast for an 80-year-old woman. Jiles and Kennedy were relatives of the woman, and Jiles made most of the food for the gathering.
A jury in April convicted Edmondson, 54, of second-degree intentional murder in Jiles’ killing and acquitted him of killing Kennedy, who was struck by ensuing gunfire. Jurors also acquitted Edmondson of first-degree murder charges in connection with Jiles’ killing.
No one else has been charged in Kennedy’s killing.
Witnesses testified at Edmundson’s trial that it was peaceful until it ended, when an argument broke out in the community room and spilled outside.
Three others were wounded in the gun battle, and police recovered 39 shell casings that were fired from five guns. Edmondson fired the first shot, and nine more.
“In a matter of minutes, something so healthy and pure turned into something so vicious and corrupt,” Ramsey County District Judge Leonardo Castro said in handing down the sentence. “It is inexplicable to me, and frankly, it honestly breaks my heart.”
Edmundson’s mandatory minimum sentence fell under the state’s “heinous crimes” law because he was convicted in 1994 of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and 15 years had not elapsed since he was discharged from the imposed prison sentence in that case.
Departure denied
Officers were sent to the shooting behind Frogtown Square Apartments at University Avenue and Dale Street about 5:15 p.m. Jiles was shot twice in the neck. An autopsy showed Kennedy had two “distant gunshot wounds” from a bullet or bullets that exited his body.
Jiles was born in St. Paul and raised in Hugo, where he lived at the time of his death. Kennedy was a St. Paul resident.
John Lee Edmondson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
Edmondson, of St. Louis Park, claimed defense of others in Jiles’ killing. He testified at his trial that he was driving his mother and niece in the parking lot when his mother spotted Jiles with a gun standing by a group.
Edmondson’s attorney, Ryan Pacyga, told jurors that Edmondson walked over to the group and said he tried to push down the gun as Jiles was raising it. He then shot Jiles.
On Friday, in arguing for a durational departure from sentencing guidelines, Pacyga said “there was at least some aggression on Larry Jiles’ conduct that day to pull a gun out in a crowd.” He said Edmondson responded to the “alarming and emergency situation.”
Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Hassan Tahir said that nobody testified that Jiles pointed the gun at anyone or made threats toward anyone.
Edmondson admitted on the witness stand “multiple times he had no idea what was even going on,” Tahir said. “So for the court to treat that as an imperfect defense of some kind would essentially mean whenever you see somebody with a gun out and you have no idea why they have that gun out, or what they’re planning on doing with it, you get to go and shoot them.”
In denying the departure motion, Castro said at no time was Edmondson under threat.
“The jury determined that the defendant was not acting in defense of others,” the judge said. “The victim may have possessed a gun, but that alone is not enough to justify the departure.”
‘Today we get justice’
Larry Jiles Jr., known as “Chef Hot Hands,” was one of two men fatally shot in St. Paul on Feb. 25, 2023. (Courtesy of GoFundMe)
Jasmine Nixon, Jiles’ sister, told the court that Edmondson took away a father from his kids and “today we get justice.”
“His life was stolen at 34,” she said. “My brother, Larry Earl Jiles Jr., forever will be 34.”
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Jiles’ mother, Gretchen Bauman, said what Edmondson did was “extremely evil.”
“Nobody believes outside of your family that you shot Larry in protection,” she said.
Edmondson apologized to Jiles’ family, then repeated his claim he was protecting his family.
“I didn’t know what was going on, Mr. Tahir,” he said. “But I knew my family was in danger.”
Edmondson said Kennedy and his family “deserve justice, too. Who shot him?”
Judge Castro kept his words to Edmondson brief.
“Only you know why you did what you did,” he said, “when there were so many more options for you to make.”
