Star Tribune
Reflections on a life cut short mark post-sentence hearing in fatal St. Paul high school stabbing
Months before Devin Scott was stabbed to death on his first day at Harding High School, he stood before Judge JaPaul Harris with plans to get his life in order.
From the bench recently, Harris remembered aloud how respectful the 15-year-old was. He also recalled the teen’s excitement to start fresh at a new high school. But what stood out to Harris was Scott’s potential — a potential he claimed to see in Scott’s teenage killer during a post-sentencing victim impact hearing for family members Wednesday.
Nosakhere Kazeem Holmes, 17, pleaded guilty last week to first degree manslaughter for fatally stabbing Scott after the two fought in the school hallway in February. Holmes was arrested moments after with a bloodied 4-inch blade in his pocket. Prosecutors initially charged him with second-degree unintentional murder and tried moving his case to adult court, but Harris placed him on probation as an “extended jurisdiction juvenile” instead.
This means Holmes received both a juvenile probation sentencing and a stayed adult sentencing. He will remain in custody at the Juvenile Detention Center until a bed opens at the Department of Corrections’ juvenile facility in Red Wing. Most minors complete the program there in nine months to a year, but there’s currently a wait list.
If he violates his probation before turning 21, then he would serve his adult sentence of 8 1⁄2 years in prison minus credit spent for at least 293 days in custody.
Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Muteeat Lawal read statements from Scott’s mother, Eniesha Hammond, and his younger brother as the two looked on in court. Hammond said her son was a natural leader who was caring, fun and helpful to others. His death shook their family and community.
“[Family] were in his life from the start, and loved him dearly. … He was confident and honest,” Hammond said of Scott. “Lots of people and more families will be hurting, which breaks my heart to know.”
In his statement, Scott’s little brother Jayden Scott said he didn’t realize his class was yards away from the fight that fatally injured his sibling. When he heard the news, he began to break down in silence.
“I just sat there, and it was like all the time I spent with him flashed before my eyes,” his statement said, adding that he thinks about Devin every day. “These past months were the hardest of my life trying to get back to normal.”
Holmes had little to say. He pledged to follow the rules of his probation, which include contacting his probation officer every week, abiding by a 9 p.m. curfew and possessing no weapons.
Lorraine Curtis, Holmes’ mother, wiped away tears and apologized to Scott’s family on behalf of her son.
“My heart pours out. I’m so sorry that this happened, and I can promise you that my son didn’t mean for this to happen,” Curtis said. “I’m sorry, and I know that [Nosakhere] will get through this program because that’s what kind of person he is.”
Before dismissing Holmes to begin his probation, Harris shared his experience with Devin Scott. He sees such potential within Holmes and Scott’s little brother, but added that they must try to put their lives in order like Devin.
“I hope that at some point we can sit down … to really hash this out. Because I’m sick of this being hashed out in these ways where it’s just spur of the moment, not thinking, and then we have loss of life,” Harris said, adding that Holmes should think about the consequences of his actions. “You took a life, whether it was intentional or not.”
Tired of hearing about north Minneapolis kids having to go trick-or-treating in the suburbs, business owner KB Brown started throwing a costume bash at the Capri Theater with the goal of bringing together families and the organizations that care for them.
Now in its fourth year, that Halloween party has become a stone soup of community organizations cooking out, roller skating and giving away tote bags of candy to tiny superheroes and princesses.
Elected officials, including state Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, and Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Lunde, dropped in on the festivities Saturday to get out the vote in the final stretch of door-knocking season. KMOJ’s Q Bear DJed the party.
KB Brown and his grandson Zakari, 3. Brown founded Project Refocus, a nonprofit dealing with youth mentorship, security along the West Broadway business corridor and opioid response in the surrounding neighborhoods. (Susan Du/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Farji Shaheer of Innovative SOULutions provided a bounce house and inflatable basketball hoops. A violence intervention professional who offers community training on treating traumatic bleeding, Shaheer recently purchased land in Bemidji to redevelop into a retreat center for gun violence survivors.
He in turn invited Santella Williams and Dominque Howard to bring Pull and Pay, a former Metro Mobility bus retrofitted as a mobile arcade full of vintage games such as “NBA Jam” and “Big Buck Hunter.” The bus was a pandemic epiphany for Williams and fiancé Howard when they suddenly found themselves with four kids and nowhere to take them after COVID-19 shut everything down. Pull and Pay now shows up to community events throughout the North Side.
Pull and Pay owner Dominique Howard showed kids, squeezed elbow to elbow, how to play “Big Buck Hunter” inside his homebuilt mobile arcade. (Susan Du/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
“This is the first time I’ve been able to come through, but we figured we’d stop by check it out. It’s so perfect, and such a beautiful day,” said Shannon Tekle, a Northside Economic Opportunity Network board member attending with her two-year daughter, both of them dressed as monarch butterflies.
“North Side, we’re a big family,” said Brown, proudly toting his grandson Zakari (a 3-year-old Chucky with candy-smeared cheeks) on one arm. “Everybody here is from the community.”
NOVI, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper with a woman’s first name in recent days as the Republican presidential nominee focuses his closing message on a hypermasculine appeal to men.
On a Friday morning post on Trump’s social media site Truth Social, the former president referred to one of the most prominent openly gay journalists in the U.S. as “Allison Cooper.”
Trump made the subtext even more explicit later Friday during a rally in Traverse City, Michigan, where he criticized a town hall Cooper hosted with Vice President Kamala Harris.
”If you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, he’s a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,” Trump said, before pausing and saying in a mocking voice: ”Oh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.”
On Saturday, Trump repeated the name during another Michigan rally. ”They had a town hall,” Trump said. ”Even Allison Cooper was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by it.”
In referring to Cooper with a woman’s name, Trump appeared to turn to a stereotype heterosexual people have long deployed against gay men. Such rhetoric evokes the trope of gay men as effeminate and comes as Trump aims to drive up his appeal among men in the final stages of his bid to return to the White House.
The former president on Friday recorded a three-hour interview with Joe Rogan, a former mixed martial arts commentator whose podcast is wildly popular among young men. On Oct 19, Trump kicked off a Pennsylvania rally discussing legendary golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitalia.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for Cooper declined to comment.
According to Gomez, workers have had wages withheld under threats of possible deportations. Unauthorized workers are less likely to seek legal aid due to their legal status.
“What I want from this program is for other people not to suffer the same abuses that we’ve suffered in the past,” Gomez said. “This program is designed to prevent these abuses.”
CTUL said workers’ rights under the program will be shared in multiple languages.
Gomez specifically named Yellow Tree, United Properties, and Solhem Cos. as developers he’d like to see join the program. CTUL called for these companies, as well as Roers, Doran Properties Group, and MWF Properties, to adopt the standards.
Those working under developers in the program can report abuse to the standards council. After a complaint is made, the council will monitor contractors’ worksites to make sure they are complying with the standards.
If the council finds that a contractor is abusing workers, developers in CTUL’s program would be legally required to stop working with the contractor.
