Star Tribune
Former St. Paul worker sentenced to more than 10 years for shooting teen
A former city of St. Paul staffer charged with shooting a teen outside a recreation center where he worked last year has been sentenced to a decade in prison.
Exavir Binford, 27, was convicted of fist-degree assault on Friday for shooting the teen in the head. Ramsey County District Court Judge Joy Bartscher sentenced Binford to 10 years and five months in prison, ordering that Binford pay $34,000 in restitution to the teen’s family.
Andrew Marshall, a lawyer representing the teen’s mother, Margarita Davison, said Binford’s actions left permanent scars on the teen and his family.
The boy, who was 16 at the time, “has not been able to return to school. He is taking online classes, but he can only handle it part time. He really can’t go anywhere without his mother because she has to be able to administer emergency medication if he has a seizure,” Marshall told the court, relaying a victim impact statement from the teen’s family, “As a parent, Ms. Davison thought that [her son] going to the Jimmy Lee rec center after school was a good thing. She thought it was a safe environment … The idea that the person running the rec center would try to harm her son was unimaginable.”
Binford could spend the last third of his sentence on supervised release if he remains on good behavior.
Police arrested Binford last January after a confrontation escalated outside of the Jimmy Lee Rec Center on Lexington Pkwy. N, leading to a fight in the center’s parking lot. According to charging documents, Binford told investigators that he shot at the teens after they jumped him, adding that he didn’t realize his bullet struck JT until a moment later. Binford pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in December. Prosecutors dismissed a second-degree attempted murder charge against him and agreed to a sentence above state guidelines.
City leaders were quick to decry the incident, ending Binford’s employment and launching an audit of recreation center policies across the city. That probe is ongoing.
Davison has since sued the city for medical expenses and other damages related to the teen’s traumatic brain injury. Davison’s lawsuit in federal court alleges that officials knew of Binford’s troubled history with youth but did little about it. According to allegations outlined in the suit, Binford threatened to shoot a 17-year-old girl while working at the Jimmy Lee Rec Center in 2022 and he punched a visitor multiple times while working at the Arlington Rec Center in 2019.
“Mr. Binford should never have been in a position where he was around kids. He should never be allowed to be in a position where he’s around kids in the future. The fact that [the teen] is alive is just luck. Mr. Binford tried to kill him,” Marshall said in court Friday, relaying the family’s statement. “He shot Ms. Davison’s 16-year-old son in the head. It was not a mistake. He acted out of anger.”
City spokesperson Kamal Baker confirmed that officials received the lawsuit and said they are reviewing it. Baker said the city’s response will be provided to the court.
A former Medtronic consultant received an 18-month prison sentence this week for his role in a scheme linked to the $1.6 billion acquisition of an Israeli medical device company in 2018.
A federal jury in February convicted Doron “Ron” Tavlin, 69, of Minneapolis, of one count of conspiracy to engage in insider trading and 10 additional counts related to securities fraud. That same jury found David Jay Gantman, 58, of Mendota Heights, not guilty of all charges against him. A third defendant — Afshin “Alex” Farahan, 57, of Los Angeles — pleaded guilty in 2022 and has yet to be sentenced.
“His crime was cynical and brazen. It was also reckless,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Ebert wrote in a memo calling for a 3-year prison term. “Tavlin’s conduct had the potential to blow up a deal that a team of executives and financial advisers had been diligently negotiating for months.”
Tavlin is now scheduled to self-surrender Jan. 5 to begin his prison term, which will be followed by 320 hours of community service.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Tavlin learned about a secret, pending acquisition by Medtronic of Mazor Robotics, where he worked as vice president of business development, in 2018. Tavlin also previously worked as a consultant to the Ireland-based Medtronic, which also has a headquarters in Fridley.
Tavlin illegally tipped off Farahan, his friend, about news of the imminent acquisition and told him to keep the news secret. Farahan knew the deal would likely result in a boost to Mazor’s stock price and quickly bought more than $1 million of the company’s stock throughout August and September 2018. Medtronic announced plans to acquire Mazor, which specialized in robotics for spinal procedures, in September 2018 and the deal closed three months later.
Prosecutors said Farahan netted more than $245,000, and Gantman made $255,000 in profit by selling the securities quickly after the deal was publicized. Farahan paid Tavlin for the secret information about the pending deal — including a $25,000 kickback about a year later —according to prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, who sentenced Tavlin Monday, also ordered Tavlin to pay a special assessment fee of $1,100 – or $100 per each count. Frank did not impose a fine.
Star Tribune
Charges detail assault in Minneapolis that led to shooting rampage, killing one in Kandiyohi County
Another friend of the ex-girlfriend arrived to help. He pulled up in a car as the group exited the apartment and Matariyeh immediately pointed a gun at him before pounding on the windshield with the gun. Everyone fled as Matariyeh ran back inside the apartment.
The two men met in a parking lot before attempting to return to the apartment. That’s when they looked up and saw Matariyeh on the balcony. Matariyeh immediately began firing multiple shots at them as they took cover behind parked cars.
It was around this time that Minneapolis police officers arrived and made contact with Matariyeh’s ex-girlfriend. She believed he was still inside the apartment, but officers later learned that he had fled. They reached him on the phone. He told officers he was going to kill innocent people if he couldn’t speak with his ex-girlfriend or see his daughter, who was at daycare at the time. He later told police negotiators that “he wanted to go out by ‘suicide by cop.’”
All the while, Matariyeh was speeding westbound.
Police officers pursued him near Cosmos in Meeker County after being alerted that Matariyeh might have stolen another vehicle at gunpoint in Carver County.
Around 2 p.m. he pulled into the rural driveway of Peter Mayerchak in Lake Lillian. Mayerchak, who was in his yard placing hay over his septic mound, went and greeted Matariyeh, who shot him in the chest.
Mixing progressive dreams with dire warnings, a group of DFL leaders riled up a group of volunteers in St. Paul on Thursday morning, urging them to push on through the day’s freezing rain and fatigue in the remaining days before the election.
Several elected officials including Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar told the group of about 150 campaign staffers, volunteers and union members about how meaningful their work is to keeping DFL control of the Legislature, as the electeds start a statewide bus tour to turn out votes.
“We are here to keep our trifecta here in Minnesota,” U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar told volunteers on Thursday. “We’ve got five days, people!”
On the Republican side, House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said earlier this month that the House Republican Campaign Committee had raised a record $2.7 million ahead of the election and she said Republicans have also set records in volunteering and door-knocking as they work to break DFL control.
Minnesota Democrats hold a rally before starting a bus tour around the state to get voters excited, including Rep Ilhan Omar, Sen Amy Klobuchar, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, Rep Betty McCollum and Sen Tina Smith on Thursday. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
“Republicans have the momentum and resources heading into the final stretch to win the majority and restore balance to Minnesota,” Demuth said in a statement. “Minnesotans are ready to move on from the expensive two years of Democrat one-party rule.”
House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said she thought voters preferred action to the gridlock of divided government. “They’re looking for people who can get things done,” she said.
These last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts come as Democrats around the country push to keep control of state legislative chambers and try to flip a few statehouses that Republicans hold by just a few seats.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the arm of the national Democratic party that works on statehouse races across the country, has spent $500,000 on Minnesota races this year, including House races and the state Senate contest.
