Star Tribune
State Board of Pardons decides Mitchell Hamline law student can seek parole after 18 more years
An imprisoned Mitchell Hamline School of Law student lost her bid Thursday for a quick release from the Minnesota correctional facility in Shakopee.
In her comments to the state Board of Pardons, delivered via live video from prison, Maureen Onyelobi, 37, apologized to the victim’s family and sounded hopeful that she might get out soon, pledging to put her legal education to use helping others.
“No matter what the board decides today, I just want you to know I’m grateful and I will spend every day trying to make amends for my crime,” Onyelobi, convicted of aiding and abetting first-degree murder, told the board made up of Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea. It was Gildea’s final session before stepping down from the bench on Oct. 1.
The board unanimously agreed to reduce Onyelobi’s sentence from life without parole to life with the possibility of parole, making her eligible to be considered for release by the state Department of Corrections after 27 years in prison, provided she stays out of trouble.
Onyelobi has served nine years in prison, making her potentially eligible for consideration in another 18 years.
Weighing heavily against her imminent release was the gravity of her crime. Onyelobi was convicted in November 2014 in the death of Anthony Fairbanks. At trial, prosecutors claimed Fairbanks was a heroin addict. He was facing a federal drug indictment in North Dakota at the time of his death, but had yet to be apprehended, court records show.
His co-defendant on the indictment was Maurice Wilson, Onyelobi’s then-boyfriend. Wilson was in the Cass County jail at the time of the murder.
Prosecutors alleged that Onyelobi, Wilson and David Johnson regularly sold Fairbanks heroin. On the day of the murder, Wilson spoke to Onyelobi and Johnson on a recorded jail call about concerns that Fairbanks would be arrested and testify against him, putting him in prison for life. He repeatedly encouraged them to “take care of” Fairbanks so he couldn’t testify, court records show.
Onyelobi did not kill Fairbanks. But by her own admission, she was in the vehicle when Johnson shot him four times in the head. She also helped set up the fatal meeting with Fairbanks, then hid the murder weapon — a handgun — in her newly acquired storage locker, according to court records.
Onyelobi and her supporters said she was in an extremely abusive and violent relationship with Wilson and under his control.
Surviving members of Fairbanks’ family, including his mother and aunts, spoke to the board, saying that his birthday is Friday and he would have turned 33. The family opposed relief for Onyelobi, calling her a “cold-blooded murderer.” One aunt said, “My Anthony didn’t get a second chance, so why should she?”
Walz responded, “I’m deeply sorry that you have to relive this trauma.”
“Anthony Fairbanks’ life mattered,” Ellison said. “No matter what his circumstances were, he still had the possibility of doing great things in this world and that has been taken away from him.”
The attorney general told Onyelobi that given the gravity of her crime, “Your release anytime soon is not on the table for me.”
After Ellison’s statement, a male spectator stood up and loudly said, “Terrible process,” as he walked out of the room.
Ellison continued, saying that the person who didn’t pull the trigger, Onyelobi, shouldn’t be sentenced to longer than the one who did. Johnson is expected to be released in November 2040.
Walz noted that the judge and prosecutor on Onyelobi’s case also supported relief. “I do believe that the idea of life without the opportunity of parole is synonymous with a death penalty,” he said. “The loss of hope is a dangerous thing.”
Gildea, who wrote a Supreme Court decision upholding Onyelobi’s conviction in 2016, spoke briefly in support of the shorter sentence. “I appreciate so much the courage of the victim’s family,” and the steps Onyelobi took to improve herself, the chief justice said.
Wilson was convicted of first-degree murder after a trial in Hennepin County District Court and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Star Tribune
Former Hubbard County official, school bus driver gets six-year sentence for sex crimes against students
A former Hubbard County commissioner and school bus driver was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for sex crimes involving minors.
Daniel J. Stacey, 60, was charged in April 2023 with criminal sexual conduct and electronic solicitation of a minor, both felonies, in Beltrami County District Court. He was then charged in November with nine additional felony counts related to criminal sexual contact with a minor.
Stacey pleaded guilty in June to four felony counts as part of a plea deal that dropped the remaining charges. His attorney, Joseph Tamburino, declined to comment Friday on the sentence, and officials with the Nevis school district did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.
Stacey resigned from the Hubbard County Board in January 2023 and was placed on leave from his school bus job during an investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) that began after the parent of a Nevis student filed a complaint.
In an email Friday, Hubbard County Administrator Jeffrey Cadwell said he had no comment other than that Stacey’s actions “did not occur within the course and scope of his duties with the County and the County was completely unaware of them.”
According to a criminal complaint, Stacey offered to mentor a 13-year-old male on his bus route. He brought the boy to his property, asked him to watch pornography and tried to touch him in a sexual manner, court documents state.
The boy told investigators that Stacey told him not to tell anyone, and helped him rehearse what to say about doing chores at his property. Investigators said they found footage showing times Stacey would deactivate the school bus camera when the boy was the only student left on the bus.
A second criminal complaint outlines similar allegations against Stacey with a minor who was 14 years old.
Star Tribune
Woman charged as investigation into attack on north Minneapolis homeless shelter continues
A 33-year-old woman has been charged with two felonies in connection with an attack on a north Minneapolis homeless shelter that forced 54 women and children to relocate last week.
Eureka D. Riser, 33, of Minneapolis, is charged with second-degree rioting with a dangerous weapon and first-degree damage to property, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. She was in custody Friday, a day after Minneapolis police confirmed her arrest.
Riser, also known as Eureka Willis, is alleged to have been in a group of at least three people who on Sept. 5 went to St. Anne’s Place, 2634 Russell Av. N., and threatened residents, smashing doors with a baseball bat.
Residents were forced to vacate the shelter, leaving it boarded with plywood and watched over by armed security. Building managers estimate that property damage amounts to more than $10,000, according to the county attorney’s office. Additional charges may be brought against others involved.
“This violent attack on some of our most vulnerable community members, unhoused women and children, in a place where they had gone to seek shelter and safety cannot be tolerated,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement.
Hoang Murphy, the CEO of People Serving People, which operates the shelter, said earlier this week that the four-hour episode was the culmination of an argument between shelter residents and neighbors over street parking that started days earlier and spilled over into violence.
According to the criminal complaint, which cites surveillance footage, Riser allegedly swung a baseball bat against the shelter’s doors, shattering glass while residents were inside. Another member of the group pointed what appears to be a gun at the front door of the building, the complaint says.
Residents have since been relocated to a hotel for safety reasons, costing People Serving People $9,000 a night — a figure that Murphy called unsustainable.
Star Tribune
6 months in jail for man shot by Minnesota deputies while resisting arrest
A man who was shot and wounded by sheriff’s deputies in east-central Minnesota while resisting arrest received a six-month jail term Friday.
Leo H. Hacker, 71, was sentenced in Pine County District Court in connection with his guilty plea in two cases of assault, and obstructing and fleeing law enforcement in connection with his clashes with deputies in February 2023.
Hacker’s sentences will be served concurrently and includes Judge Jason Steffen setting aside a three-year sentence sought by the County Attorney’s Office. Steffen’s terms also include five years’ probation and community work service.
According to the charges in each case and related court documents:
On Feb. 21, deputies tried to pull over Hacker’s pickup truck on a gravel road about a mile from his Pine City home. As two deputies approached his vehicle, he drove toward them. Both deputies opened fire on Hacker and wounded him.
Hacker was wanted at the time on charges of second-degree assault and obstructing law enforcement in connection with allegations that he pointed a gun at a deputy outside his home on Feb. 14 and angrily defied orders to drop the weapon.
At one point, Hacker warned the deputies that if they did not leave, he would return with “something bigger,” the charges quoted him as saying.
The deputy was there to seize Hacker’s SUV stemming from a dispute over his unpaid attorney fees, the charges read. However, law enforcement outside the home “determined that based on the totality of circumstances, it was in the interest of safety to leave the scene at that time” and instead seek a warrant for Hacker’s arrest, the criminal complaint continued.
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