A Brooklyn Park man has received a term topping 27 years for fatally shooting a woman in a vehicle in Minneapolis and wounding the man in the driver’s seat.
Marquis Deonte Gardner, 34, was sentenced Thursday in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree intentional murder and one count of attempted second-degree intentional murder in connection with the killing on Feb. 21, 2023, that killed Alexis Rae Rodriguez.
With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Gardner is expected to serve slightly more than 17 years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
His accomplice, 39-year-old Anthony Leandre Winston, of Andover, was sentenced to 10 years after admitting to two counts of aiding an offender after the fact. With jailtime credit, Winston will serve the first 6½ years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
According to the charges and police: Rodriguez and a 41-year-old man arrived in a vehicle about 6:45 p.m. on West Broadway near 26th Avenue N. Surveillance video showed an SUV pull up to the vehicle. The SUV driver, Gardner, fired several shots into the other vehicle and fled.
After his arrest, Gardner said alleged that the man with Rodriguez had robbed him.
