ST. LOUIS – The second of two men charged in a 2023 killing in the city’s Central West End neighborhood pleaded guilty Monday in St. Louis Circuit Court.

The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office reached a plea agreement with Syntrell Howard, 23, who was due to go on trial later this week.

Howard agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, armed criminal action, and unlawful gun possession. He was originally charged with first-degree murder but that was reduced to manslaughter.

Howard and another man, Ta-Shaun L. Patterson, admitted to shooting Miguel Johnson on the afternoon of May 3, 2023. Howard and Patterson got into an argument with Johnson at an apartment in the 4400 block of Forest Park Parkway.

Patterson and Howard chased Johnson and shot him dead on the sidewalk near the intersection of Laclede and North Taylor avenues. Johnson was 29.

A St. Louis Circuit Court judge sentenced Howard to 15 years in state prison for voluntary manslaughter, a consecutive 3-year term for armed criminal action, and a concurrent 7-year term for unlawful possession.

In August, a judge sentenced Patterson, now 23, to 18 years in prison.