A longtime domestic abuser received a 40-year sentence for fatally shooting his wife in the head while two of her children were in the family's Maplewood home.
Larry T. Tennin, 32, was sentenced Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for shooting 41-year-old April Tennin in the mouth in August 2015.
With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Tennin will spend roughly 26 years in prison before serving the balance on supervised release.
The shooting occurred about 6 a.m. following a drawn-out argument. Larry Tennin fled the townhouse and was arrested in September 2015 at a cousin's home in the Chicago area. The two of her four children in the residence at the time were not physically harmed.
Prosecutors said Larry Tennin had made many threats to kill his wife and her children, regularly abused them and attacked April Tennin so brutally last year that she told a friend "it looked like a murder scene."
According to the criminal complaint, April Tennin pleaded moments before she was shot, "No, Bae, I'm sorry!"
He pulled the trigger once and fled.
Authorities said Larry Tennin had previously put a gun in April Tennin's mouth and threatened to kill her.
The two met while he was in prison, and they married in January 2014 at Stillwater prison.
Larry Tennin's criminal history shows convictions for malicious punishment of a child and second-degree assault, among others.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
