2 teens stabbed 19-year-old 22 times, killing him, prosecutors say

A 17-year-old and a 14-year-old have been arrested in connection with a St. Paul homicide that occurred on March 31.

The 17-year-old faces one count of second-degree murder. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has decided not to name him until he is certified as an adult.

Due to the age of the 14-year-old, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office wasn’t able to provide any additional information on whether he has been charged.

As previously reported, officers responded to the 1400 block of Sixth Street East on a report of an unresponsive man lying on the sidewalk on March 31. The victim, 19-year-old Jay’Mier Keymari Givens, was brought to the hospital, where he died of his injuries.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner found Givens had been stabbed 22 times: 18 times in the back, once in the neck, twice in his left arm and once in his right hand, according to a juvenile petition.

The 911 caller said his 10-year-old daughter was acting strange and said she heard yelling outside and saw people. The caller looked outside and saw someone lying on the sidewalk. He tried to wake the victim up, but he wasn’t responsive.

The 10-year-old told police she heard yelling and someone calling for help. When she looked out the window, she saw someone lying on the ground and three to four younger males in dark hoodies running away.

Givens’ brother told investigators that Givens had gone to smoke with his friends at a home three blocks from where he was found unresponsive. A 17-year-old and a 14-year-old who lived at the home were identified as the friends Givens was going to meet.

While executing a search warrant on Givens’ phone, officers found he had been messaging with someone using a TextNow number. The person using the number said they had a stolen Kia and asked Givens to come smoke. The person had also sent a video showing two handguns in front of a gray blanket, a hand wearing a work glove, and a pair of red and black Nikes.

Surveillance video showed three people walking near the area where Givens was found unresponsive and then two people running from the area.

A neighbor told police that the occupants of the home where the two teens lived had been acting strangely beginning April 1 and had covered their windows with blankets and curtains.

During a search warrant execution at the home, police found suspected blood on the hallway wall and in the kitchen. They also found two knives hidden in the basement rafters of the home, one of which was bent, court documents state. The knives were sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for forensic analysis.

Two sets of clothing that matched the people seen on surveillance video were also found hidden in the rafters.

The 17-year-old’s mother — the foster mother of the 14-year-old — said that her son told the family that they needed to leave the home because it wasn’t safe, adding something about “retaliation,” court documents state.

The 14-year-old was arrested on April 8. He said he had heard that Givens had died but denied messaging him. He said the last time he saw Givens was two days prior on March 28, but later admitted to meeting with him.

The 14-year-old said Givens used to “beef” with a lot of people, and “they caught up to him.”

He was later released from custody with charges on April 11. Investigators spoke with the 14-year-old’s girlfriend who said that Givens had threatened to kill her and her toddler son and that the 14-year-old was “a little” upset about it. She added that he didn’t spend the night at her house in the night of the murder.

On April 29, the 14-year-old’s biological mother told investigators that her son confessed to being involved in the murder of Givens, but that he wouldn’t give her any details.

The 17-year-old’s mother turned him in to law enforcement on April 30 for a previously issued probable cause pickup. She said she hadn’t seen her son in weeks.

When asked where he was on the night of the murder, the 17-year-old’s story changed several times. He eventually admitted to meeting up with Givens with the 14-year-old. He claimed he didn’t know anything about the knives hidden in the basement, but admitted one of the sets of clothes was his.

When shown photos of Givens’ body and where he was found, the 17-year-old said his stomach hurt and ended the interview, court documents state.

Officers arrested the 14-year-old on May 1. His temporary foster parents said he had grown anxious recently and that they had given him a notebook to journal in. Investigators executed a search warrant and found the notebook, in which the 14-year-old described the murder.

He initially denied writing the passages, but then admitted he “wrote what [he thought] happened.”

The 14-year-old later told investigators, “It wasn’t supposed to play out like that,” and then said Givens, the 17-year-old and himself were in the woods smoking marijuana. He asked Givens why he had threatened his girlfriend and her son and claimed that Givens pulled a knife on him.

Court documents state the 17-year-old then pulled out a knife to defend the 14-year-old and stabbed Givens, the teen told police. When the 17-year-old stabbed Givens, Givens dropped his knife and the 14-year-old said he picked the knife up and they both stabbed Givens multiple times.

Givens then ran away and collapsed on the sidewalk, the 14-year-old said. He admitted the knives found in the basement were the ones used in the murder.

He also said he and the 17-year-old made up the story about the stolen Kia because they knew it would interest Givens.