Appeals court upholds truck park bar shooting conviction

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

Last year, 32-year-old Devondre Phillips 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, began fighting and fired shots. Brown was convicted of second-degree murder in Wiley’s death, but Phillips is 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 reconsider his sentence, claiming he fired in self-defense. On Monday, the court affirmed his conviction, saying it was possible the jury found Phillips “failed to comply with his duty to retreat.”