Eat Street drive-by shooting last year in Minneapolis leads to prison sentence for killer

A man charged with using a “ghost gun” to kill an 18-year-old in a drive-by shooting in Minneapolis has received a prison sentence of slightly more than 8 ½ years.

Amariaun Antonio Thomas Thornton, 22, of Oakdale, was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to aiding an offender after the fact in connection with the shooting on July 7, 2024, of Javon Jarule Stevenson at Nicollet Avenue and 27th Street. Stevenson died that night at HCMC.

The plea agreement led to the dismissal of second-degree murder and other felony counts against Thornton, which likely would have led to a longer sentence. With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Thornton is expected to serve slightly more than five years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.

The killing occurred within feet of the stretch of Nicollet Avenue known as Eat Street, a United Nations-like collection of mom-and-pop restaurants and food-related markets.

According to court documents:

Stevenson was getting out of a car with three others when an SUV approached and the driver began shooting. At least two of the people with Stevenson returned fire. Surveillance video showed one of the bullets fired from the SUV ricocheting off the ground and hitting Stevenson.

Bullets also hit and shattered a nearby store window. Police investigators determined that at least five guns were fired at the scene.

Thornton was arrested a month later in a separate case after officers were called to the 2900 block of Russell Avenue S. in Minneapolis on reports of a gun being fired. Police learned the suspect, later identified as Thornton, had run into a house. They surrounded the house, but Thornton broke a window and fled on foot before being arrested.

When officers searched the home, they found a 9 mm “ghost gun.” They later tested the weapon and determined that it matched discharged casings fired from the SUV in the drive-by shooting.