ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis man appeared in court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to a 2022 fatal shooting at a homeless camp.
The shooting happened around 10 p.m. on Nov. 30, 2022, behind a warehouse in the 1500 block of North 13th Street in the city’s Old North St. Louis neighborhood.
Police and prosecutors said Joseph A. Baylark III, 29, shot Rudy Boykins multiple times. Boykins was 50.
Surveillance cameras recorded part of the shooting, police said.
The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office initially charged Boykins with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Baylark’s trial was scheduled to begin next week. However, prosecutors agreed to amend the murder charge to voluntary manslaughter and dismiss the armed criminal action charge in exchange for Baylark’s guilty plea.
A circuit court judge accepted the plea agreement and sentenced Baylark to seven years in state prison.