Star Tribune
AG Ellison declines to take over Hennepin murder case after victim’s family objects to plea deal
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is declining to intervene in a murder case after the victim’s family asked him and Gov. Tim Walz to remove the case from Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty following a proposed plea deal that would keep one of the defendants out of prison.
The family of Stephen Markey say Moriarty is wrong to offer Husayn Braveheart less than a year of workhouse incarceration and probation for the deadly 2019 carjacking of Stephen Markey in Minneapolis. Braveheart, was 15 at the time. The other defendant, Jered Ohsman, was 17 and is serving 22 years in prison. Earlier this year, Walz and Ellison removed a murder case from Moriarty over similar objections to a similar plea deal offered to a juvenile offender in a murder case, but Ellison said then that he didn’t anticipate making a rare decision like that again. He reiterated that stance in a statement to the Star Tribune.
“County attorneys are elected to exercise their judgment about how to secure safety and justice in their communities. The Attorney General’s defined role in criminal prosecution is primarily to step in and assist when county attorneys request our assistance, and in extremely rare occasions, when the Governor assigns a case, “Ellison said. “I said earlier this year that I did not expect to ask the Governor to any assign future criminal cases from county attorneys to me. While I am reluctant to say more now because I have not yet had the opportunity to meet in person with the Markey family, that remains my intention today. Ultimately, all elected officials, including county attorneys, are accountable to voters for their decisions.”
A spokesperson for Walz declined to comment.
The Markey family continues circulating an online petition to stop the plea from happening ahead of Braveheart’s sentencing next month. They are furious and frustrated that probation is on the table after years of being told that prosecutors would seek an appropriate sentence for the slaying of Markey, a 39-year-old paralegal from Plymouth.
Markey was shot in broad daylight June 11, 2019, in northeast Minneapolis. Ohsman pled guilty to second-degree murder in 2020 and admitted to firing the fatal shot.
Markey’s family says Braveheart, now 20, who is charged with first-degree aggravated robbery and aiding and abetting second-degree murder, orchestrated the carjacking and also shot Markey. They don’t understand the disparate treatment of the two suspects. Markey’s mother and sister are both attorneys.
“If I can’t get justice for my brother, let’s be honest … I have resources. I understand the system. If I can’t get the right outcome for my murdered brother — who was also involved in the legal system— who can?” Susan Markey said.
Ohsman was certified to stand trial as an adult. Meanwhile, Braveheart’s case made its way all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court over arguments of whether the case should stay in juvenile court. In November, justices ruled he should also be tried as an adult.
The Markeys feel like Moriarty is going against the state’s highest court by offering Braveheart probation.
Moriarty has defended her decision by using the science of adolescent brain development and the progress Braveheart has shown in the past four years of being incarcerated.
She wants Braveheart to serve up to one year in the county workhouse with five years of probation. The court could impose the same sentence as Ohsman’s if he violates probation.
When news broke of the offer in July, Moriarty in a press conference said Braveheart has been “extraordinarily responsive to the carefully selected treatment.” She reiterated that in a statement Monday.
“If we disrupt that progress, we will jeopardize public safety and risk everything when he comes back to the community. We cannot take that risk,” Moriarty said.
The plea offer shocked Markey’s family. They were informed on a Friday in July ahead of a plea scheduled for the following Monday. They immediately demanded a meeting with Moriarty and requested a continuance.
Prosecutors never filed a motion for a continuance. But District Judge Michael Burns allowed it, noting how upset the family was and the last-minute notification prevented everyone from attending the plea hearing.
Braveheart pleaded guilty in August. The family is asking Burns to reject the plea agreement at Braveheart’s sentencing Oct. 23.
“I do think that it’s very unethical,” Susan Markey said of the 11th-hour change. “And taking off my lawyer hat and putting on, like, my sister and family hat, it’s also just a really, really mean way to treat people… It’s piling on in a way that’s really cruel.”
The family has been in touch with the family of Zaria McKeever, who was gunned down in her Brooklyn Park home last November. McKeever’s ex-boyfriend is accused of enlisting two teenage brothers, then ages 15 and 17, and the younger one allegedly fired the fatal shots.
Prosecutors wanted the teens to stand trial for second-degree murder as adults. But in February, Moriarty abruptly changed course, offering a plea deal that would spare them a lengthy adult prison sentence.
The older boy accepted the plea, but before the younger brother could do so — and after weeks of mounting pressure by McKeever’s family — Ellison asked Walz to intervene. Moriarty then blasted Ellison’s intervention, saying state officials undermined her authority by making an “undemocratic” decision that set a dangerous precedent.
The teen’s case, which remains confidential in juvenile court, is ongoing.
It’s exceptionally rare for the attorney general to take a case from any county attorney, which can only be done at the request of the county attorney or if the governor steps in. McKeever was the second time since the 1990s that the governor has intervened.
Susan Markey said in response to Ellison and Walz not stepping in that she is disappointed but not surprised.
“It’s horrifying what they are doing to us. The whole thing is shameful. They should be ashamed and embarrassed. They are not worthy of representing the state of Minnesota.”
“The personnel changes resulted in having no trans, nonbinary, gender non-conforming employees on the planning team,” she said. “This process (was) led by the cis gender team and the REIB department, and people weren’t comfortable with that at all.”
A spokesperson for the city, Jess Olstad, said in an email that the summit will be rescheduled in the next few months as the city works with community leaders to “ensure it is a meaningful, productive and inclusive experience for attendees.”
“The decision to postpone the meeting was a product of significant outreach from LGBTQ+ organizations from across the region and productive discussions with internal and external stakeholders,” Olstad said. “The event is designed for trans and gender non-conforming community members, and we are committed to centering those voices in the event planning and production in the 10th Trans Equity Summit.”
The letter from advocacy groups urged the city to continue to invest in work to support the LGBTQ+ community, specifically trans communities, “who are under policy, rhetorical, and physical attack in our present moment.”
The letter was signed by OutFront Minnesota, Transforming Families Minnesota, QUEERSPACE collective, RECLAIM, Twin Cities Pride, PFund Foundation, Twin Cities Quorum, Gender Justice, Family Tree Clinic and MN POC Pride.
Jenkins had helped planned the summit for the past decade, but has taken a step back now that the city has a REIB department. She said it’s frustrating to have the event postponed because it was supposed to be the 10th annual event, but last year it was postponed, too.
A driver who hit and killed a man who ran into a busy Minneapolis street has been spared prison and was sentenced on the lesser of two charges.
Camoreay L. Prowell, 38, of St. Paul, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty in Hennepin County District Court to failing to stop for a traffic collision in connection with the death of Wilson G. Chinchilla, 26, of Minneapolis, on Oct. 19, 2022, on West Broadway near N. Logan Avenue.
Judge Hilary Caligiuri set aside a 13-month term and placed Prowell on probation for three years. He has about 3½ weeks left to serve in jail. As called for in the plea agreement, the more serious charge of criminal vehicular homicide was dismissed.
When asked about dropping the higher charge, the County Attorney’s Office said in a statement, “This office weighs the specific facts of each case to determine the appropriate resolution. In this instance, the charge for which Mr. Prowell was sentenced [Thursday] is correct and appropriate.”
The complaint said that Prowell was driving at the time after his license had been canceled. Court records in Minnesota revealed he’s been convicted three times for drunken driving and at least twice for driving after his license had been revoked.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police found Chinchilla’s body in the left lane of westbound West Broadway. Video surveillance showed that he ran out of a nearby home moments earlier toward the street.
Witnesses told police that a speeding SUV hit Chinchilla, slowed briefly as it continued west, then made a U-turn and returned to the scene of the crash. Prowell stopped, looked at the body and left.
Mychel Stowers was released on parole from prison about seven months ago after he pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder in 2008 for fatally shooting a man in a drug deal gone wrong. According to charging documents, Stowers was living at a halfway house and granted a pass to visit his ex-wife at her North End apartment on the same day that she was killed.
Mychel Stowers’ description also matched the man witnesses saw fleeing Damara Stowers’ apartment moments after the shooting. One witness said they heard no fights or arguments before four gunshots rang. They heard another gunshot five seconds later, and another witness reported seeing a heavyset man with a white shirt and blue shorts run south afterwards.
The apartment’s owner said they were preparing to evict Damara Stowers, adding that her ex-boyfriend, a stocky man in his 30′s or 40′s, was living with her.
Police heard reports of a carjacking minutes later, finding a man shot in his leg on 99 Acker Street. Surveillance footage reviewed by authorities show someone approach that man and point something at him before a flash appeared. The man fell and the shooter ran away, but returned moments later to take the man’s vehicle and leave. That man was treated at Regions Hospital for a broken femur from a gunshot wound.
Authorities believe the gun used to carjack that man on Acker Street was the same used to kill Damara Stowers in her apartment.
There have been 25 homicides in St. Paul so far this year, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune database. There were 28 by this time last year.
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