Star Tribune
Mother of mastermind behind deadly home invasion that killed Zaria McKeever charged as an accomplice
The mother of Erick Haynes, the man sentenced to life in prison for orchestrating the deadly Brooklyn Park home invasion of his ex-girlfriend, was charged Wednesday as an accomplice for her alleged role in failing to report Haynes’ plot.
Valesha G. Parker, 47, of Minneapolis, faces four felony counts of aiding an offender – accomplice after the fact in connection with the death of 23-year-old Zaria McKeever, whose slaying at the hands of two teenagers conscripted by Haynes outraged community members and resulted in a rare intervention by Gov. Tim Walz.
Parker was charged via summons by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office and is not yet in custody. State prosecutors accuse Parker of harboring at least one of the shooters in her hotel room after the murder and repeatedly lying to police about her knowledge of the crime.
Parker is the third immediate relative of Haynes’ to be criminally charged in the case. Haynes’ sister and brother-in-law, Eriana Haynes and Tavion Michael Darnell James, both 25, were each sentenced last month to roughly 3½ years in prison after pleading guilty to aiding an offender after the fact. James is also required to spend one year in the the county workhouse along with five years’ probation.
According to the criminal complaint and previous court testimony:
Haynes had a history of violating domestic no-contact orders against McKeever, the mother of his child. In the days leading up to her death, Haynes repeatedly stalked and harassed her, angry that she had starting seeing another man.
On Nov. 8, 2022, Haynes drove two teenage brothers to the Brooklyn Park apartment complex where McKeever’s new boyfriend lived. He handed the younger boy, then 15-year-old Foday Kamara, a 9-millimeter handgun and waited in the car as the teens went inside.
They kicked in the door, hoping to confront McKeever’s boyfriend. Instead they found her. She refused to let them get to her partner.
Foday Kamara unleashed a flurry of shots, striking McKeever five times at close range. One round struck his older brother, John Kamara.
Haynes drove them to a nearby hotel in Brooklyn Center, where he and other relatives had booked a room. His sister, brother-in-law and Parker were all inside when they arrived and present as Foday admitted aloud: “I shot my brother,” charges say.
After Eriana Haynes and James took John Kamara to the hospital, Foday told Parker that he’d also shot McKeever, according to court records. Parker responded that he “shoulda never listened to” Haynes and that her son “was wrong for putting [Foday] in this predicament.”
Later that night, Parker was lying on the bed as Haynes instructed Foday to clean and hide the murder weapon in the wheel well of a vehicle in the hotel parking lot, charges say. That’s where investigators later found it.
Under questioning from police, Parker claimed she had no knowledge of Haynes’ activity that night and did not know that Eriana Haynes drove anyone to the hospital. She also couldn’t explain why Foday was found in her hotel room.
“Where the hell did he come from?” she said, according to the criminal complaint.
Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office took over prosecution in the controversial case in March 2023, amid outrage over plea agreements offered by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty that would have spared the teen shooters adult prison time. The deals were widely decried as too lenient and Gov. Walz reassigned the case to Attorney General Keith Ellison at his request.
In May, Judge William Koch accepted Foday Kamara’s guilty plea to aiding and abetting second-degree intentional murder and sentenced him to a 10-year term.
John Kamara, who was 17 when McKeever was killed, was spared adult prison and is serving a two-year sentence in a juvenile facility.
Erick Haynes pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in March, avoiding a lengthy trial, and was sentenced to life in prison in April.
Star Tribune staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.
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.
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.
