Sentenced Announced For 23-Year-Old In West St. Paul Murder

DAKOTA COUNTY, MN — A 23-year-old from Oakdale will 367 months, more than 30 years, in jail after the fatal July 2019 shooting of 21-year-old Lawrence T. Renfro. Nathan W. Mcdonald pled guilty in August to second-degree murder.

The first-degree murder charge against Mcdonald was dismissed. Co-defendant Terrell T. Payne, 20, pled guilty in September.

The Dakota County Attorney's Office provided the following summary of the criminal complaint in a news release:

On the morning of July 9, 2019, a friend of Lawrence Renfro went to the apartment where Renfro was then residing. The friend found the door to Renfro’s ground floor apartment locked and when no one answered his knock, he walked to the bedroom window where he found the screen damaged.

When he entered through the window he found Renfro deceased on a couch in the living room with Renfro’s 2- year-old child sitting next to him. The friend took the child, exited the apartment and called police.

During a search of the apartment, five 9mm casings were located. An autopsy was conducted of Renfro and it was determined that he suffered five gunshot wounds, including one to his head.

After his arrest on July 30, 2019, Payne told police that he and Mcdonald had gone to Renfro’s apartment in the early morning hours of July 9th in Mcdonald’s Chevy Malibu and attempted to enter the apartiment complex through the main door.

After being unable to gain entrance through this door, they exited and went through the bedroom window of Renfro’s apartment. Payne said Renfro woke up, told them to “get out of here”, after which Mcdonald shot Renfro multiple times.

"We are pleased to have brought this man to justice for his part in this senseless and
violent death," Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said in a statement.

"Our sympathy is extended to the family and friends of Lawrence Renfro for their loss."