Cahokia man sentenced for best friend’s death, says he would trade places if he could
Stetson Culpepper says he wishes he could trade places with the best friend he accidentally shot to death last year.
The 29-year-old Cahokia man pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and felon in possession of a firearm after the gun he and Eric Roby had been “playing around” with discharged and hit 30-year-old Roby in the chest. The two had been friends since school, family members said at an emotional sentencing hearing Tuesday.
St. Clair County Circuit Judge John O’Gara sentenced Culpepper to 10 years in state prison, with two additional years of mandatory supervised release.
The shooting happened May 14, 2019, in the 600 block of Martin Luther King Drive in East St. Louis. Roby was taken to a St. Louis area hospital, where he was treated until he died.
At the hearing, Roby’s 10-year-old daughter told the courtroom her life “will never be the same without him,” recounting how she and her dad would hang out at parks, draw, make music and walk their dogs together. She said he had told her of his plans to buy her a first car and pay for her college education.
In his statement, Culpepper said seeing Roby’s daughter walk past him to take the stand “touched his heart,” and he apologized to Roby’s family for what he called “a stupid mistake.”
“Eric was not only my best friend, but like a brother,” he said. “We were really close.”
Culpepper also apologized to Roby’s mother, Queen Clay, who has lost her son, her daughter and a grandson to gun violence in East St. Louis since 2014.
Two of Culpepper’s sisters also spoke at the sentencing hearing, asking Judge O’Gara to consider their brother’s big heart. They said his family had felt Roby’s loss too, since they viewed him as an extension of their family.
“It’s hard to accept your friend is gone because of an accident you caused,” Dontalisha Culpepper told the court.
The prosecution was led by Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Emmanuel, who asked O’Gara to sentence Culpepper to 14 years in prison. Emmanuel said Culpepper’s prior felony convictions should be considered aggravating factors, showing he hadn’t learned from past mistakes.
Culpepper was convicted in 2016 on two felony charges of armed robbery and one count of threatening a public official.
Justin Whitton, Culpepper’s lawyer, asked the judge for three years, saying his client did not act maliciously. He told O’Gara of Culpepper’s “immediate and genuine remorse” at his friend’s death, mentioning how at the police station on the night of the shooting, officers noticed Culpepper looking up at the ceiling and speaking to Roby, saying, “You know this was an accident” and “I love you.”
Whitton said Roby and Culpepper had both been “playing around” with the gun, with Roby having shot it into the air earlier that day.
“This was a two-way street,” Whitton said. “It could be Roby with me and Culpepper in a casket.”
But O’Gara said there was no reason Culpepper should have been near a gun in the first place, given his status as a convicted felon.
“I don’t have doubt you do regret this to your very core ... there is a sense of sickness and sadness,” O’Gara told Culpepper. “But any time you pull the trigger of a gun you are endangering a life. You are taking the role of God into your hands.”
Culpepper said he wanted his friend’s family to have closure following the sentencing. He said his life since the loss of his best friend has been hard, and that he regrets his actions every day.
“I miss Eric Roby to death,” he said.
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
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