A man once charged with murdering a Little Canada father inside his own pickup truck walked out of a Ramsey County courtroom with a five-year prison sentence — not for homicide, but for illegally possessing a firearm. Kastedell Lamarr Thomas Jr. pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by an ineligible person after prosecutors dismissed two counts of second-degree murder tied to the October 2024 shooting death of 45-year-old Nicholas Sletten.
The case, first detailed by the Pioneer Press, traces back to the night of October 14, 2024, when St. Paul officers were sent to Jackson Street and Wheelock Parkway around 9:25 p.m. after 911 callers reported a shooting. Sletten was found lying in the boulevard and later died at Regions Hospital. Surveillance video showed five men had gotten into Sletten’s Chevrolet Silverado before the shooting, and two men who had been with him told police, per the criminal complaint, that Thomas shot Sletten with an AK-47-style gun after telling him not to move or reach for anything. Sletten died after being shot in the back.
Investigators believed the encounter began as a robbery attempt. Two of Sletten’s relatives told police he grew and sold marijuana, and a witness said, per the criminal complaint, that the suspects appeared to be trying to rob Sletten for marijuana or pills. Phone location data placed Sletten’s truck at a Speedway gas station on Rice Street in Roseville between 9:11 and 9:20 p.m. that night, shortly before the fatal encounter in St. Paul’s North End.
A Case Built on Contested Witness Accounts
The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Thomas with one intentional and one unintentional count of second-degree murder, and he was jailed on $2.5 million bail after his arrest on January 28, 2025. That arrest came during Operation Cold Front, a three-month multi-agency sweep in which Thomas was one of 12 people arrested, according to Bring Me The News. The operation combined the St. Paul Police Department’s Narcotics, Gang, Criminal Investigations, and Special Investigations units with the Ramsey County Violent Crimes Enforcement Team, and it took shape amid a fentanyl crisis that claimed 180 lives in Ramsey County in 2023…