Man sentenced to 12.5 years for murder of 15-year-old girl in Minneapolis

A man who pleaded guilty last summer to the murder of a 15-year-old girl in Minneapolis’ East Isles neighborhood will now spend time behind bars.

A judge sentenced 20-year-old Antonio Lamar Brooks Jr. on Friday. sentenced to 12.5 years (150 months) for the fatal shooting of Ka’Maih Johnson on August 10, 2023. Brooks pleaded guilty last month to second-degree unintentional murder.

At least two-thirds of Brooks’ sentence will be spent in prison, with the rest on supervised release. Hennepin County Judge Amber Brennan gave him 214 days in jail.

According to a criminal complaint, a witness was riding with three other boys and invited Brooks to meet. Brooks arrived in an SUV and after briefly laughing and joking together, he threatened to shoot everyone.

Brooks’ friends said he “stopped playing,” to which Brooks replied, “You think I’m playing?” I’m gonna shoot this b–up.’ At that point, the witness and Johnson, who had gotten into Brooks’ car, got out and went back to the car they had arrived in. Johnson was hanging out of the backseat window when the witness heard the sound of gunshots.

Both vehicles drove away, with Johnson still leaning out the window. A second witness told investigators she fell out of the car and hit the ground. Police who arrived on the scene around 1:30 a.m. found Johnson lying in the street with a gunshot wound to the chest. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

During Friday’s hearing, a prosecutor told Brennan that Brooks had not yet shown any remorse.

“He has demonstrated remarkable immaturity throughout the case,” a prosecutor said. “He still doesn’t fully accept responsibility … and he kept saying he shot in the air. That’s impossible. He did not shoot into the air, but directly at the victim. Otherwise, an upward movement would not have hit her in the chest.”

Brooks apologized to the victim’s family before hearing the judge’s sentence.

“I’m not that person anymore,” Brooks told Brennan, asking for a “reasonable sentence” because he had no criminal history.