MINNEAPOLIS — A proposed plea deal in Hennepin County has a murder victim’s family speaking out. 

Steve Markey was shot to death four years ago, as two teens allegedly tried to carjack him. One teenage suspect received 21 years in prison. The other, if the plea goes through, will receive probation.

Markey’s family says they didn’t learn of the proposed plea deal from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office until Friday, and the plea was supposed to go through at a Monday morning hearing. 

But at Monday’s hearing, Judge Michael Burns delayed the plea until Friday Aug. 4, at which point he’ll allow them to speak in court before suspect Husayn Braveheart pleads.

Steve Markey was a paralegal who worked for his mom, criminal defense attorney Catherine Markey.

“I always say he was my fun child. So that’s always nice to have someone fun in your office,” Catherine said.

The 39-year-old who specialized in helping low-level offenders get their records expunged was growing his hair out for Locks of Love when he was killed in June 2019 in Northeast Minneapolis.

“We always say we wish we all were shot. It would have been better if they shot us too, than to live without him,” his sister Susan Markey said.

Jared Ohsman, who was 16 at the time, was certified as an adult, pleaded guilty to murder in 2020, and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

But the Markey family learned Friday that Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty is offering a plea deal to Husayn Braveheart, who’s now 20, but was 15 when charged with murder. 

Under the proposed deal, he would receive five years probation with a suspended prison sentence hanging over his head if he violates the terms.

“She repeatedly told us he is a different person than the person that murdered my brother, which is one of the most insulting things I’ve ever heard because we are all different people in a fundamental and horrible way that I hope no one else has to experience,” Susan said.

“I feel very much for the family. I talked to them at great length on Friday. I felt their anger, I felt their grief – and – my job is to listen to them but ultimately do what is in the best interest of public safety,” Moriarty said.

Braveheart’s case has been delayed for the last four years as it was appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court, which ruled he should be certified as an adult. 

Moriarty says that in those four years, Braveheart has turned his life around by receiving programming while incarcerated.

“It’s really important that we not disrupt that progress in that treatment, and I think that’s in the best interest of public safety,” Moriarty said.

Moriarty says sending Braveheart to prison would ultimately be a bigger threat to public safety once he’s released than continuing treatment while on probation because the Minnesota Department of Corrections would not be able to offer the same kind of rehabilitation treatment that was ordered by a judge during Braveheart’s certification hearings.

But Markey’s mom and sister — both attorneys robbed of a life with Steve — don’t believe the public will be safer with one of Steve’s alleged killers released.

“If you can get to be a killer at age 15, you don’t magically become someone else a few years later,” Catherine said.

According to the criminal complaint, Braveheart fired at Markey but it was a shot fired by his co-defendant, Jared Ohsman, that killed him. 

The attorneys for the public defender’s office representing Braveheart said in a statement: “This plea agreement reflects the specific facts of this case, our client’s extraordinary efforts towards rehabilitation, and well-established evidence on adolescent brain science.”

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