Guilty Plea For Shooting Rochester Man in the Neck

Red Wing, MN (KROC-AM News) - A plea agreement was reached today in the case of a Red Wing man accused of shooting a Rochester man in the neck earlier this year.

Jury selection was scheduled to begin today at the Goodhue County Courthouse for 20-year-old John Roberts’ trial but instead, he entered a guilty plea to a second-degree assault charge. Roberts had been facing first and second-degree attempted murder charges, a first-degree assault charge, two counts of second-degree assault, and a charge of reckless discharge of a firearm.

He was accused of firing the bullet that struck the neck of the 19-year-old Rochester man while he was sitting in the backseat of a car. The victim was transported to St. Mary's hospital and treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.

He told investigators he was in the car with three other people when they stopped at a residence where Roberts lived around 2:30 AM on the morning of May 21st. The Rochester man indicated he stayed in the vehicle while the two other people went inside the residence. A short time later, the victim heard two gunshots and ran away from the car until a police officer responding to a report of a shooting spotted him and called for an ambulance.

Roberts is scheduled to be sentenced on November 18th.

News Update: Rochester Police Investigating Suspicious Death