A Saint Paul man is facing felony drug and weapons charges after officers responding to a scream found a shooting victim on the floor outside his apartment, then recovered rifle ammunition and more than 300 grams of pills inside. Ryan Michael Merchant faces charges of first-degree drug sale and possessing a firearm or ammunition as a person barred by a prior conviction, according to a criminal complaint.
According to mncrime.com, officers were sent to the apartment building at about 10:45 p.m. on October 22 after a caller reported hearing a man scream. When they arrived, they found a victim suffering from a gunshot wound near his pelvis outside Merchant's apartment. The victim told officers he did not know who shot him or why he was at the apartment, the outlet reported.
Inside Merchant's apartment, officers saw rifle ammunition sitting in plain view on a table, the complaint states. A search of the unit turned up eight rifle rounds along with two orange pill containers, one holding folded paper containing suspected methamphetamine and the other containing round orange pills marked “3 0 dp.”
Pills, Powder and a Six-Figure Gram Count
Lab testing confirmed methamphetamine in the paper recovered from the apartment, weighing a combined 1.94 grams, per the same account. The orange pills were identified as Adderall, which contains amphetamine, a Schedule II controlled substance. A pill bottle held 133 of those orange pills, while a black bag contained pills weighing 313.73 grams, the complaint says.
Merchant was not present when officers first arrived but returned to the apartment while they were still on scene and was arrested, the report notes. He told officers it was loud and he left because he was scared, and he twice stated he was defending himself. Merchant also claimed he had swallowed drugs; he was taken to a hospital for evaluation, medically cleared, and then booked into jail, according to the complaint obtained by mncrime.com.
A Record That Bars Him From Guns
The complaint says Merchant has six prior felony convictions, including second- and fifth-degree controlled substance crimes, third-degree burglary, theft, financial transaction card fraud and check forgery. One of those convictions makes him ineligible to possess firearms or ammunition, prosecutors allege.
That ineligibility ties into Minnesota's firearms statute, which under Minnesota Statutes section 624.713 addresses people who are not entitled to possess firearms or ammunition. The drug sale charge against Merchant stems from Minnesota Statutes section 152.021, the state's first-degree controlled-substance-crime statute, which covers sale offenses under its first subdivision.
