Woman sentenced to workhouse, probation for fatal accidental shooting of boyfriend

Kilat Fitzgerald KSTP

Janice Louise Hawkins-Green (Hennepin County Sheriff's Office)

A woman who pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in June was sentenced to five years of probation with a stayed sentence of four years in prison if she violates the terms.

Janice Louise Hawkins-Green, 40, was sentenced Monday after she took a plea deal in June where she admitted to shooting and killing her boyfriend on accident.

Manslaughter in Minnesota carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, but the plea deal will see Hawkins-Green serving 180 days of work release along with carrying out the terms of her probation. Court records show she was given credit for five days served and will be eligible for electronic home monitoring after 60 days.

Court documents show police responded to reports of an accidental shooting at a home in southeast Minneapolis just after noon on Aug. 29, 2022.

Officers then found 36-year-old Mark Holmes O’Dell lying on his back in a pool of blood.

The criminal complaint states that Hawkins-Green told O’Dell to get his things and leave the house. She then gathered several of his items out of her vehicle, including a handgun and a sweatshirt.

Hawkins-Green told investigators she was holding the gun with the barrel pointed away from her so she “wouldn’t shoot [herself],” according to court documents.

She then said she “was shoving the gun and the sweatshirt” at O’Dell when the gun went off. O’Dell died at the hospital later that afternoon.

Court documents show the weapon, a Springfield XD Elite 9mm handgun, has a backstrap safety and a trigger safety, meaning the gun must be held tight to depress the backstrap safety and the trigger safety must also be depressed for the gun to fire.

Hawkins-Green confirmed in a later interview with police that she was holding the gun by the grip with her finger on the trigger when she was shoving the gun at the victim, court documents say.