Long sentence for man who broke into St. Paul home, fatally shot dog and stole $7,600 in silver bars

A man has been sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison for two shootings hundreds of miles apart, one of them occurring when he broke into a St. Paul home, fatally shot a man’s “loyal and gentle” dog and stole thousands of dollars worth of silver bars.

Ladarius J. Snipes, 27, of Cleveland, Miss., was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court in St. Paul after pleading guilty to various firearms-related felonies in connection with the illegal purchase of a gun, the St. Paul break-in and an attempted armed robbery of a restaurant in his home state.

Prosecutors said the gun Snipes used to kill the dog in January 2022 was acquired two months earlier at a Twin Cities gun shop in a “straw purchase,” meaning it was bought by someone on behalf of a felon.

“The [burglary] was not only inherently dangerous, but cruel and needlessly traumatizing,” the prosecution wrote in a court filing leading up to sentencing. “The [resident] was deprived not only of his sense of safety and security in his own home — he was deprived of a loyal and gentle pet and companion.”

Snipes’ pending legal troubles are far from over. He’s charged with murder in Sunflower County, Miss., stemming from the December 2019 shooting of a 28-year-old man.

According to federal court documents and St. Paul police:

On Nov. 1, 2021, Kendarrius K. Willard, 27, and his wife, Anna T. Novacheck, 28, both of Minnetonka, and Snipes went to Bill’s Gun Shop and Range, where Novacheck bought a semiautomatic pistol on behalf of Snipes and Willard, both of whom have felony records.

On Jan. 5, 2022, Snipes and Willard burglarized an unoccupied home in St. Paul in the 2000 block of Margaret Street. While there, Snipes stole a handgun, silver bars valued at more than $7,600 and shot Max, the resident’s golden retriever.

Snipes’ sentence also covers the attempted armed robbery on Aug. 7, 2021, when he entered Backyard Burgers in his hometown, brandished a gun and demanded money from an employee, who fled to the back of the kitchen. Snipes fired his gun to scare employees and fled without any money.

For their roles in the illegal gun purchase, Willard was given a 7 ¹⁄₂-year prison sentence and Novacheck was put on three years’ probation.