Guilty plea in Peavey Park murder

Tescil Mason-Kimmons pleaded guilty to murdering 44-year-old John R. Lacy, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Tuesday.

Mason-Kimmons, 33, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree intentional murder. He will be sentenced Oct. 2, and is expected to receive 30. 5 years in prison. He had been indicted by a grand jury for first-degree murder in Lacy’s slaying and faced life in prison without parole if the case had gone to trial and he was convicted.

According to the criminal complaint and the admissions by Mason-Kimmons in court, on the morning of Sept. 15, police were sent to Chicago Ave S. and Franklin Ave E. and found Lacy face down on the sidewalk near Peavey Park. He was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center but died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

Surveillance video from the area surrounding the crime scene showed Mason-Kimmons in a blue hooded sweatshirt get out of the passenger side of a green Subaru Legacy station wagon and walk north through Peavey Park. Mason-Kimmons admitted he walked up behind Lacy and shot him in the head with a handgun.

Police verified that the car was registered to Elana Rosa Danowit and executed a search warrant of her home where she lived with Mason-Kimmons. Inside, they found a blue hooded sweatshirt similar to the one worn by the shooter in the video and recovered hollow point bullets similar to the one used to kill Lacy, according to the complaint.

Lacy had been the victim of a stabbing by Mason-Kimmons three days before he was killed. Police had arrested Mason-Kimmons as a suspect in the stabbing, but he was released on Sept. 13.

During the course of the murder investigation, officers listened to a monitored jail call to Danowit on Sept. 12 in which Mason-Kimmons said he intended to kill Lacy when he was released. Further investigation revealed that Mason-Kimmons and Lacy had been engaged in a feud for more than a year.

Danowit also was indicted for first-degree murder for driving Mason-Kimmons to and from the murder. She is scheduled to go on trial Nov. 5.