Star Tribune
Grandmother guilty of neglect that led to 7-year-old girl dying on Christmas on Red Lake Reservation
Jurors have convicted a woman of neglect that led to the Christmas Day death of her 7-year-old granddaughter on the Red Lake Indian Reservation.
In a six-day trial, a federal jury in Duluth on Tuesday found Sharon Marie Rosebear, 63, guilty in connection with the death of Jewel Sky Fineday on Dec. 25, 2022, at the Indian Health Service.
Jewel’s father, Julius Garrett Fineday, 42, pleaded guilty earlier to child neglect. Sentencing for Rosebear and Fineday has yet to be scheduled.
State death records say Jewel died in the Indian Health Service emergency room from malnutrition and a severe infection from lice.
“Jewel loved to spend time watching TikTok on her dad’s phone,” according to her online obituary. “Jewel was a very quiet girl, and when Grandpa would sing and beat his drum, she would dance just hard and out dance all the other kids.”
Jewel’s native name was “Miikawaddizimikinaakikezens,” meaning “Beautiful Turtle Girl,” the obituary noted. “She loved turtle[s] especially sea turtles.”
Evidence presented during the trial showed that Jewel “died at the same weight she had been nearly three years earlier,” a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office read, “and that while Rosebear was aware of [Jewel’s] severe lice infestation, Rosebear responded by keeping [the girl] isolated rather than seeking medical attention.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office statement also disclosed that medical testimony revealed that Jewel’s “prolonged starvation … may have severely compromised [her] immune system’s ability to fight infection.”
Star Tribune
Man sentenced to more than 30 years in murder of fellow resident at West St. Paul group home
A 43-year-old man was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison Friday for stabbing to death a fellow resident at a state-operated mental health group home in West St. Paul.
John C. Adams II was found guilty in September in Dakota County District Court of intentional second-degree murder in the death of David Rahn, 68, in 2020. Adams will get credit for 1,777 days already served on his 367-month sentence, and was ordered to pay $2,088 in restitution.
According to the criminal complaint, Adams stabbed Rahn dozens of times in the early morning of Feb. 17, 2020, at the home in the 1500 block of Christensen Avenue. After a staff member heard Rahn scream for help and called 911, police found Rahn unresponsive on the floor of his bedroom with stab wounds to his face, neck and back. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and his death was ruled a homicide.
Adams at first claimed self-defense and later said Rahn had stabbed himself. But the medical examiner found evidence that the victim had tried to fend off the attack. Police found a bloody kitchen knife and a pair of blood-soaked gloves inside bags left at a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses across the street.
Adams was convicted of third-degree assault in 2001 in Hennepin County for smashing a glass in a woman’s face in downtown Minneapolis. The court found him to be “a clear danger to the safety of others” and mentally incompetent to stand trial. His sentence was set aside in exchange for him being put under Security Hospital supervision for at least three years.
In October 2018, Adams was granted provisional discharge from the Security Hospital to the home on Christensen Avenue, but that discharge was revoked less than nine months later for violations of the discharge conditions.
The home of one of three group home operated by the state Department of Human Services for people civilly committed for a mental illness and then discharged from a DHS treatment facility.
Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this story.
Star Tribune
UCare reaches deal with HealthPartners, sparing patients from disruption
Health insurer UCare has reached an agreement with HealthPartners clinics, which will allow thousands of patients to continue seeing the same doctors without switching health plans next year.
The two companies announced the agreement Friday evening. The terms are effective immediately.
“As mission-driven organizations, UCare and HealthPartners share a commitment to improving health outcomes for our community, and the organizations’ ongoing collaboration reflects that shared goal,” a joint statement said.
The clinics had been out of network for several years, but UCare had waived rules that would have blocked patients from making appointments. UCare said it would start enforcing the network rules Jan. 1.
Star Tribune
Man charged in Brooklyn Park homicide had connection to 2022 Mall of America fatal shooting
A 19-year-old Coon Rapids man, who played a role in a 2022 fatal shooting at the Mall of America, is facing murder charges in connection with an apparent targeted shooting earlier this month in Brooklyn Park.
Citing witnesses, surveillance footage and cell phone data, prosecutors say that Marquan D. Tucker waited in a parking lot Dec. 7 before opening fire on two people when they exited a business in the 8000 block of Brooklyn Boulevard.
The two victims returned fire, though one was wounded and the other, Ramone R. Blue, 23, of Stewartville, Minn., was killed. The complaint, filed Friday, offers no motive for the shooting.
The shooting happened about seven months after Tucker was discharged from court monitoring related to the 2022 fatal shooting of 19-year-old Johntae Hudson in a department store at the Mall of America, according to court records.
Tucker was charged with third-degree riot in the case and was adjudicated as delinquent, or found guilty, court records said. He was one of three teens who confronted or chased Hudson into the store where the shooting happened. The two teens who carried guns received long prison sentences.
Tucker was being held Friday at the Hennepin County jail. It wasn’t clear if he yet had an attorney.
According to the criminal complaint:
Surveillance video shows a black BMW pull into the parking lot in Brooklyn Park around 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 7. As the two victims exit a business, a man leaves the passenger seat of the BMW, hides behind another car and fires about 16 shots. The gunman then flees in the BMW.