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Sentencing follows plea agreement set in December of last year

 

A second man, considered to be the primary shooter in the drive-by shooting death of Gumdel Gilo in 2023 has been sentenced to prison.

Jenup Stepen Chop, 20, was sentenced to 450 total months broken down between three felony counts of murder in the second degree-drive by shooting, attempted murder in the first degree-drive by shooting and attempted murder in the first degree-drive by shooting.

The sentence, handed down Friday afternoon in Mower County District Court, follows a plea agreement established in December of 2024.

He received 297 months for the murder charge and 210 and 153 months respectively for the attempted murder charges.

The 153 month sentence would run consecutive to the previous two sentences with the 210 month sentence running concurrently. For each sentence, Chop will be required to spend at least two-thirds of the sentence in prison. 

He was also given 579 days credit for time served.

Chop was largely quiet throughout the proceedings, speaking only once when asked by Judge Natalie Martinez if he had a statement.

“I would like to apologize for all the damage that I caused …” Chop said. “I would like to say I will try to change and be a better person.” 

Prior to that, lead prosecuting attorney Daniel Vlieger read an impact statement by Allison Hoban, the mother of Gilo’s two children. In the letter, Hoban spoke of the harm Gilo’s death has caused, not only to her, but to the couple’s two children.

She said both children have struggled to cope with their father’s loss, moments that strike Hoban when they are doing things like saying goodnight to their father’s picture.

“The hardest moments are the quiet moments,” the statement read. “These are the moments that break me.”

She also stated that she hoped that justice will provide some sense of closure.

“The emotional toll has been devastating,” she wrote. “Inside, I am shattered.”

After the statement, Vleiger made his case for the agreed upon sentence and stated while Chop has taken responsibility for the crime and accepts the consequences, it doesn’t take away from how this case could have escalated even further, referring to the two people also struck by bullets while riding with Gumdel as well as the innocents living in the area of the shooting.

“This could have been much worse,” Vlieger said.

Chop’s sentencing comes after Manamany Omot Abella agreed to plead guilty in April of last year to a single count of felony aiding an offender – accomplice after the fact.   

He will be sentenced on April 3.

This leaves one final suspect — Cham Obang Oman — who ​​has been charged with five counts of aiding and abetting including aiding and abetting first and second degree murder and two counts of aiding and abetting attempted murder and the use of a dangerous weapon.

Oman was believed to be behind the wheel of the vehicle from which Chop shot from the night of the killing. 

Oman’s jury trial is scheduled to start on June 30.

Gilo was killed the night of June 9, when the car he and the two other victims were riding in were targeted by the trio on Fourth Street Northwest. When officers arrived, they found Gilo dead in the driver’s seat.  

 A second man was found sitting on the boulevard by a tree with a gunshot wound to his upper arm, and a woman had been shot in the abdomen. Police determined that these two people had also been in the vehicle at the time of the shooting and had exited the car after it crashed.