ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis man was sentenced to a 10-year prison sentence as part of a plea deal in connection with the 2019 shooting death of a 15-year-old boy.
Joseph Renick, 58, entered an Alford plea to a reduced charge of first-degree involuntary manslaughter in the Aug. 25, 2019, death of Sentonio Cox in south St. Louis.
In an Alford plea, a defendant acknowledges the prosecution had enough evidence to get a conviction but does not admit guilt.
Just before 6 a.m., St. Louis police officers responded to a call for a missing person in the 7300 block of Vermont, which is on the edge of the Carondelet and Patch neighborhoods in south city. They arrived to find Cox dead from a gunshot wound.
Prosecutors said Renick and another man spotted Cox and Cox's cousin looking into parked cars. When the men confronted Cox and his cousin, the cousin ran off, and Cox backed up onto a vacant lot.
Prosecutors said witnesses described the scene to police. The witnesses said Renick pulled out a gun and pointed it at Cox. They said the other man then told Renick to "shoot this piece of [explicative]."
Witnesses said Renick then shot Cox in the head with a revolver from 50 feet away.
The unidentified man accused of telling Renick to shoot Cox was acquitted of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Circuit Judge Christopher McGraugh, who oversaw the trial of Renick's alleged accomplice and accepted Renick's Alford plea Thursday, called the deal "an extremely favorable outcome" for Renick.
“If this did proceed on Murder 1, you’d be spending the rest of your life in prison,” McGraugh told Renick, according to a press release from the court.
According to the press release, Renick said in court Thursday that he wanted to tell Cox’s family “that I’m sorry for their loss.”
The office of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore released the following statement on Thursday:
"We did the best we could to get justice for Sentonio Cox’s family. Given that we were facing some challenges with the evidence in this case, we believe ensuring Joseph Renick served time for the killing of this young man was the best path forward."
Renick has been in jail for nearly four years while awaiting trial. He will get credit for time served.
