Christmas Eve murder sentence: Man to spend nearly 2 decades in prison
The man accused and convicted of murdering a 29-year-old man nearly four years ago on Christmas Eve has been sentenced to spend nearly two decades in prison.
On Friday, – just three days before Tenzin Yamgha’s 30th birthday – Judge Paul Scoggin sentenced him to 240 months in the St. Cloud prison for the death of Malcom Jamal Williams.
Although that equal to 20 years, Scoggin allowed Yamgha to receive three years and nine months of credit. As reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS when Yamgha was formally charged last year in early December, he was already spending time at the Faribault prison for a drug conviction.
Minneapolis police said officers were called to the Metro Transit station on the 2300 block of East Lake Street around 2:25 p.m. on Dec. 24, 2020. That’s where they found Williams suffering from a gunshot wound. He died at the scene.
Police said at the time they believed a fight escalated into a shooting. The suspect had left the scene by the time officers arrived.
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Charging documents filed last December state surveillance video showed a man entered a lobby of the station and Williams approached him. A confrontation ensued and the suspect apparently threatened to shoot Williams. After Williams took the man’s hat off his head, the man pulled a gun out of his pocket and shot Williams at least twice.
Two witnesses at the scene later identified the man who shot Williams as Tenzin Yamgha, who later entered a guilty plea to the second-degree murder charge.
On Monday, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office issued the following statement regarding Yamgha’s sentencing:
“My thoughts are with Mr. Williams’ family, suffering the loss of a loved one to gun violence. Their wait for a resolution to this case spanned nearly four years. While no sentence will return Mr. Williams to them, Friday’s result brings accountability to Mr. Yamgha and protects the community from him in the years ahead.”
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty