A St. Paul man has admitted that he helped his son hide the bodies from a quadruple murder last year in a western Wisconsin farm field.
Darren L. Osborne, 57, of St. Paul pleaded guilty Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court to aiding and abetting an offender after the fact in connection with the killings that occurred early Sept. 12.
Osborne, who also goes by the surname McWright, is expected to be sentenced to a term of four years and 10 months, the County Attorney's Office said. With credit for time in jail since his arrest more than a year ago, he would likely serve slightly more than two years in prison and the balance on supervised release. In the meantime, he remains jailed and is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 9.
The criminal complaint alleges that Osborne and his son, Antoine Darnique Suggs, drove separate SUVs to the Town of Sheridan in Dunn County, where the bodies and one of the vehicles — a Mercedes-Benz — were abandoned in the cornfield 60 miles east of St. Paul. Osborne then drove his son back to the Twin Cities.
Suggs, 39, surrendered five days later in his home state of Arizona and has been charged with four counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Matthew Pettus, 26, and half-sister Jasmine C. Sturm, 30, both of St. Paul; Sturm's boyfriend, Loyace Foreman III, 35, also of St. Paul; and Nitosha Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater, a close friend of Sturm's who also may have been dating Suggs at some time.
As for a motive, Suggs allegedly told law enforcement that he just "snapped." He's due back in court on Nov. 14.
The complaint against Osborne echoes much of what the charges against Suggs say regarding the movements of the four from one W. 7th Street bar in St. Paul to another before Suggs allegedly shot all four as they sat in the SUV.
Osborne said he thought the trouble was over a drug deal and couldn't see the bodies inside the Mercedes because of the heavily tinted windows, according to the complaint. He said he didn't know about the killings until hearing about them on the news.
Osbornesaid his son told him that "he snapped and shot a couple of people," the complaint continued.
