St. Paul man sentenced to 22 years for fatal shooting that happened 1 month after his release from prison
A judge sentenced a St. Paul man to more than two decades in prison for the shooting death of a 21-year-old man nearly one year ago.
Martavious Roby-English, 22, had been released from prison just a month before he shot and killed Toumai Gaynor on the morning of May 30, 2024.
In February, Roby-English pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder for the shooting. On Tuesday, a judge sentenced him to 22 years in prison.
An 18-year-old woman told police shortly after the shooting that she had been sitting in the car with Gaynor before his death. She had also been arguing with Roby-English over text because he was upset that she was taking too long to come over. The woman said she had been in a relationship with Roby-English for three years, including the time he had been incarcerated, documents say.
She told police that when Gaynor turned the car around, a man in a white hoodie stood directly behind the car and fired, charges say.
The woman admitted that she threw Gaynor's gun out of the car because she didn't want him to get in trouble for having it. When she touched it, she realized it was hot and had been fired, documents say.
Surveillance video footage from nearby allegedly shows Roby-English hiding behind a van parked nearby. He ran down the street when the car made a U-turn, before roughly seven gunshots were heard on the video.
In a post-Miranda interview, Roby-English said he had sent his girlfriend $250 to withdraw, but she hadn't done so. When he realized that she was down the street, he told her he was watching her. He saw a man get into her car and ran up to the window. He knocked and yelled, "Get the f*** out of the car!" and heard gunshots. He then fired back, documents say.
When his girlfriend asked why he fired his gun, Roby-English responded, "I'm sorry, but it was an accident and he shot first," according to the complaint.
Roby-English said he checked on Gaynor, but he was moving, so he fled because he did not want to get shot, according to charges. He said he later learned that Gaynor was one of the boyfriends that his girlfriend had been "messing with" since he had been in prison.
Roby-English was previously convicted of a second-degree assault charge for a case in which an innocent bystander was shot in the heel while he was sitting in his minivan. Charging documents say that Roby-English and others got into a gang-related shootout in a store parking lot in October of 2020. He was also convicted of a separate second-degree assault charge in 2022.