ST. LOUIS – A 25-year-old St. Louis man was sentenced Thursday for killing his girlfriend in 2020.

On Monday, Kristopher Burns-Jackson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in St. Louis Circuit Court. His trial was set to begin this week. He was originally charged with first-degree murder, but agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors.

Burns-Jackson admitted in court that he shot and killed Monay Phillips on the morning of Nov. 10, 2020, in the Tower Grove East neighborhood. He said they got into an argument while sitting together in a car in the 3100 block of Arsenal Street.

St. Louis police later found Phillips shot to death in the vehicle.

A St. Louis judge sentenced Burns-Jackson to 12 years on the murder charge and three years for armed criminal action. Those sentences will run consecutively.

Prior to sentencing, Phillips’ family members addressed the court to express pain and grief over her murder.

“I feel like (Burns-Jackson” took a part of me when he took her,” Phillips’ sister said.

Burns-Jackson apologized in court and asked for the family’s forgiveness.