Appeals court upholds conviction for gunman in Truck Park Bar shooting

A judge has denied the appeal for a man convicted in the 2021 Truck Park Bar mass shooting in St. Paul.

Last year, Devondre Phillips, 32, was sentenced to nearly 29 years in prison for his role in the Oct. 10, 2021, shooting that killed 27-year-old Marquisha Wiley and injured more than a dozen others.

Phillips and another man, Terry Brown, started fighting and fired shots. Brown was convicted of second-degree murder in Wiley’s death but Phillips was believed to have fired the first shot and was convicted of attempted second-degree murder.

This summer, Phillips’ lawyers asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals to rethink his sentence, claiming he shot in self-defense. On Monday, the court upheld his conviction, saying it’s possible the jury found Phillips “failed to satisfy his duty to retreat.”