A 47-year-old man has been sentenced for his role in a 2023 shooting during a staged robbery in Spencer Brook Township, Minnesota, that killed a man.

Court records show Jerold Downs of St. Paul, Minnesota, was given a 30-and-a-half-year prison sentence by an Isanti County judge on Monday afternoon, with credit for 599 days already served. He pleaded guilty in June to aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

The Minnesota Attorney General's Office prosecuted the case.

According to charges, Northfield, Minnesota, resident Fredy Saavedra Olivar hired three men — Downs, Abraham Alexander Houle and Jesse Rodrigues — to rob a "stash house" in Spencer Brook Township that had money and drugs. Olivar said he would get out of a "very large debt to a cartel organization" by staging the robbery, and agreed to split the money taken with the three men.

Downs, Houle and Rodrigues allegedly entered the house dressed as police officers on the morning of Dec. 13, 2023. Witnesses told police one of the men held a gun to the head of someone in the house and attempted to tie him up when shots were fired. Police tracked down and arrested Downs later that day.

Jose De Jesus Diaz Fernandes died in the shooting. Officers saw casings that appeared to be from a handgun and long gun near his body. 

Olivar was sentenced in February to 30-and-a-half years in prison for second-degree murder and first-degree burglary. Houle pleaded guilty in May and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 2.

Houle has pleaded not guilty to one count of second-degree unintentional murder, one count of second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony, first-degree burglary of an occupied dwelling and first-degree burglary with a dangerous weapon. His trial is set to begin on Aug. 11.