Michael Lamart Dennis II, 25, Minot, was sentenced on Friday to 40 years in prison, with a requirement that he serve 20 years, followed by five years of supervised probation, for the Jan. 12 shooting death in Minot of Dominick Stephens, 29.

Dennis was sentenced to 20 years in prison, concurrent with the first sentence, for the attempted murder of Stephens’ passenger, Patrick Bost, 28.

Stephens was shot twice in the back as he was driving a car through northwest Minot, fleeing a vehicle from which Dennis and his co-defendant Donald Lee Cooper Jr., 27, were reportedly firing shots. Stephens crashed his vehicle into a boulder in front of the Minot State University Dome at 6:07 a.m. on Jan. 12 and died of his injuries. Bost, a passenger in Stephens’ vehicle, was not injured. The driver of the other vehicle was Marcus Jeremaine Lee, 22.

Dennis had pleaded guilty last month to Class AA felony accomplice to murder and Class A felony attempted murder. The state agreed to drop Class C felony reckless endangerment and Class C felony terrorizing charges under the terms of a plea deal. North Central District Court Judge Gary Lee also ordered Dennis to pay $6,116.31 in restitution to Stephens’ family for funeral expenses jointly with Cooper and Marcus Lee and to stay away from Bost. Dennis will be required to serve a minimum mandatory four year sentence because a weapon was involved in the crime and he must serve 85 percent of his sentence under state law. He will receive credit for 135 days already served in the Ward County Jail.

Co-defendant Marcus Lee was sentenced on May 28 to 20 years in prison, with a requirement that he serve 15 years, for a Class A felony accomplice to murder charge. Marcus Lee must also serve at least 85 percent of the 15 years before he is eligible for parole.

Cooper fled to Milwaukee after the shooting and was apprehended there on April 3. According to the U.S. Marshals Service, Cooper crashed his vehicle into another car while he was fleeing law enforcement and he killed two people in the other car. He has been held in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail and is charged with reckless homicide and related charges in state court in Wisconsin. No date has been scheduled for his return to North Dakota to face Class AA felony accomplice to murder, Class A felony attempted murder, Class C felony reckless endangerment and Class C felony terrorizing charges.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed with the court in a related case, Cooper and Bost had been arguing verbally at different locations throughout the evening. The fight reportedly started over a woman. They got into a physical fight outside a hotel room that Stephens had rented. Cooper allegedly knocked Bost to the ground and then asked Dennis for his gun and threatened to kill Bost. Dennis refused to give Cooper his gun at first but Bost allegedly then got up and physically attacked Dennis. Dennis then pulled his gun on Bost and made a verbal threat to kill Bost. The parties scattered after they were told the police had been called. Cooper and Dennis got into Marcus Lee’s vehicle while Bost left with Stephens. Marcus Lee told authorities that Cooper and Dennis pressured him to follow Stephens’ vehicle and he complied because he was afraid of what Cooper and Dennis would do to him if he did not. The chase occurred in residential neighborhoods, at high speed, and Cooper and Dennis are alleged to have fired multiple shots in the direction of the fleeing vehicle.

After the shooting, Cooper allegedly contacted Sheridan Charlene Simms, 30, whom the prosecution alleges then drove Cooper to Milwaukee after the shooting.

Judge Gary Lee has rejected a proposed plea agreement for Simms, who is charged in district court with Class C felony hindering a murder investigation and Class C felony child neglect. She is in custody at the Ward County Jail.

Judge Lee noted when he sentenced Dennis on Friday that Dennis has an extensive criminal history. Last fall Dennis entered an Alford plea to a charge that he had slapped, punched, strangled and scratched his pregnant girlfriend on March 30, 2019. Judge Richard Hagar sentenced Dennis to 18 months in prison, all suspended but the three days he had already served in jail, and three years of probation. Hagar also ordered Dennis to complete an anger management class. The woman, who was six months pregnant at the time, had intervened in a fight between two male guests at her apartment and Dennis then punched her several times and strangled her twice.

A week after he was sentenced on that charge, Dennis was charged with breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s residence, punching her in the face and then leaving with his baby daughter on Sept. 15, 2019. The former couple had been fighting over custody of the baby. The state dismissed a Class A misdemeanor violation of a protection order and a Class B misdemeanor domestic violence charges against Dennis for that incident on Jan. 15, 2019, three days after the murder of Stephens and attempted murder of Bost.

Judge Lee also said that Dennis had a prior conviction for felon in possession of a firearm.