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.”
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
Star Tribune
‘Take our lives seriously,’ Michelle Obama pleads as she rallies for Kamala Harris in Michigan
”We are looking at a health care crisis in America that is affecting people of every background and gender,” Harris told reporters before visiting the doctor’s office.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden went to a union hall in Pittsburgh to promote Harris’ support for organized labor, telling the audience to ”follow your gut” and ”do what’s right.”
Harris appeared with Beyoncé on Friday in Houston, and she campaigned with former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen on Thursday in Atlanta.
It’s a level of celebrity clout that surpasses anything that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has been able to marshal this year. But there’s no guarantee that will help Harris in the close race for the White House. In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost to Trump despite firing up her crowds with musical performances and Democratic allies.
Trump brushed off Harris’ attempt to harness star power for her campaign.
”Kamala is at a dance party with Beyoncé,” the former president said Friday in Traverse City, Michigan. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, is scheduled to hold a rally in Novi, a suburb of Detroit, on Saturday before a later event in State College, Pennsylvania.
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.”
Navy issues apology for destroying Alaska Native village in 1882
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
‘Take our lives seriously,’ Michelle Obama pleads as she rallies for Kamala Harris in Michigan
Navy issues apology for destroying Alaska Native village in 1882
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city