St. Paul man gets 7 years in prison for fatally shooting woman outside Lamplighter Lounge

Aug. 25—A man who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a 23-year-old woman outside a St. Paul nightclub last year was sentenced Tuesday.

James Jones Fields, 36, of St. Paul will serve seven years in prison and about four years on supervised release. He was given credit for 373 days of time served.

It was not the outcome the family, who requested the harshest sentence possible, had hoped for, nor what Ramsey County District Judge Paul Yang said he wanted.

However, Yang said the case was lacking strong evidence as no one in the crowd outside the Lamplighter Lounge on June 13, 2020, had come forward to testify that Fields was indeed the shooter who killed Nia Black when he fired at her car.

"As much as I want to give you the maximum jail time I can, I have to do it within the bounds of the law" Yang told Fields. "I'm going to honor the plea agreement that you made. You're going to serve your time. But I hope that you will never forget Nia Black."

A MOTHER'S HEARTBREAK

Fields, wearing a blue jumpsuit and face mask, sat with his head down as Nia's mother, LaTanya Black, sobbed while she told the court how her daughter's death affected her.

"Imagine you get a phone call and there's a bunch of young girls screaming on the other line. I'm saying 'Where's Nia?' And all they're saying is they are trying to resuscitate her," LaTanya Black said. "My baby died on the phone with me. ... The next time I saw my baby, she was on the table, eyes shut, body cold and stiff, with a bullet hole in the right side of her head."

LaTanya Black said that since Nia's death, she has been hospitalized because she has been unable to eat or sleep.

"My soul died the day my baby was murdered," she said.

The middle child of three, Nia was "the glue that kept the family bond tight," LaTanya Black said.

She was a "girly-girl" who loved music and people. She was a licensed cosmetologist who graduated from the Aveda Institute and had her own business as a professional makeup artist. She had dreamed of opening her own beauty school.

The courtroom was filled with Fields' family, Black's family and supporters from the group LaTanya Black started called "Mothers Against Community Gun Violence," which supports other mothers of homicide victims and seeks to raise gun-violence awareness.

FAMILY UNHAPPY WITH THE SENTENCE

Only one other family member spoke. She had harsh words for the judge.

"I'm disgusted with the plea deal given at a minimum sentencing to this criminal," said Patrena Amos, Nia's aunt and LaTanya's sister. "This was not James' first, second or even third shooting. He has terrorized the community with his gang activity. ... There isn't any justice for the individuals harmed by his gun violence."

Fields stood and spoke briefly.

"I never knew her. I never meant to hurt her," he said. "It was a mistake. It shouldn't have happened. To my family, I'm sorry."