Woman sentenced in connection to deadly St. Paul shooting

Andrea Marie Thomas, 20, will spend no additional time behind bars for her connection to a deadly shooting that killed 21-year-old Jonathan Andrew Wade.

On Thursday, Thomas pleaded guilty to one count of aiding an offender. The plea deal included dismissing the other aiding an offender charge.

On Friday, a judge sentenced Thomas to two years of supervised probation. If any conditions of probation are broken, she will need to spend nearly a year in jail.

The shooting happened on Aug. 3, 2023, at a home on Manitoba Avenue West in St. Paul.

The criminal complaint says that according to Wade’s brother, Wade and 22-year-old Damound Jahema Franks were playing with and pointing guns at each other when the weapons went off, hitting each of them in the head.

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Franks’ injury was not life-threatening, but officers found Wade dead at the scene.

Court documents say according to surveillance video, Franks’ girlfriend, Andrea Thomas, put a pink backpack in some bushes near the home after the shooting. Police say they found two guns instead of the backpack. Thomas claimed she didn’t know what was inside the bag, and was given the backpack by someone else and told to leave with it and did so because she was scared.

Franks has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, illegal gun possession and possession of stolen property.

He faces up to 20 years in prison on the stolen property charge, 15 years on the gun possession charge and 10 years for manslaughter. 

Franks was not allowed to have a gun at the time due to two prior convictions, the complaint said.