A 33-year-old man has pleaded guilty to fatally shooting another man in a parked car outside a Robbinsdale home as children watched.
Asked why he killed the man, Zittie Taylor said in court Monday, "I don't know."
Taylor, of St. Paul, admitted in Hennepin County District Court to second-degree murder in the shooting of Jody T. Fry, 29, of Chicago.
Fry was leaving a Father's Day gathering on June 19, 2017, at his aunt's home in the 5600 block of 42nd Avenue N. just before midnight when shots were fired, police said. Fry was found dead of several gunshot wounds in the driver's seat of a vehicle.
Taylor's plea deal calls for a 27-year term and allows him to avoid facing a first-degree murder count. With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Taylor will serve 17-plus years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
The criminal complaint said witnesses at the scene would not identify who shot Fry.
Officers determined that Taylor had been dating a woman at the home. He had stalked the woman at work and would get jealous when she spoke with other men, the complaint said.
Three children at the home saw Taylor shoot Fry, but "they had clearly been coached not to say anything," the complaint continued.
After the children were moved to a temporary shelter, one of them started "spontaneously disclosing new information," the complaint said.
An 8-year-old girl told a family services staff member that she saw Taylor out front and he smiled at her before getting a gun from his vehicle and squeezing off seven shots at Fry, according to the complaint. Taylor then shot a tire on a vehicle owned by the girl's grandmother.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
