Decide says gun present in automotive of Myon Burrell, sentenced to life as teen, may be proof in new case

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A choose dominated that the arrest of a Minnesota man on a gun cost was justified in a case that has drawn consideration as a result of he was sentenced to life in jail as a teen in an high-profile homicide case and spent 18 years in jail earlier than his sentence was commuted.

Myon Burrell was charged after police in the Minneapolis suburb of Robbinsdale stated they found a handgun and drugs throughout the cease Aug. 29.

The protection argued at a listening to in February that the cease lacked possible trigger and that the gun and medicines ought to subsequently be excluded.

In a ruling this week, Decide Peter Cahill discovered the testimony of the arresting officer credible, and stated he would enable the gun and medicines as proof. The officer testified that he noticed Burrell driving erratically, and that when he stopped Burrell, smoke got here out of the window and that he smelled a powerful odor of burnt marijuana. Burrell failed discipline sobriety checks to find out whether or not he was driving underneath the affect, the choose famous.

The search turned up a handgun and drugs, a few of which discipline examined optimistic for methamphetamine and ecstasy. Burrell was charged with possession of a firearm by an ineligible individual due to his prior felony conviction, and possession of a managed substance.

Protection attorneys disputed the officer’s testimony that Burrell was driving erratically and that he noticed smoke, which was not seen on physique digital camera video. They stated Burrell had smoked marijuana within the automobile a day earlier, however not the day of the cease. They argued the outcomes of the search had been subsequently “fruit of the toxic tree” and inadmissible.

Burrell was convicted earlier within the 2008 dying of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards, a Minneapolis woman who was hit by a stray bullet. Burrell was 16 on the time of the slaying and was sentenced to life. He maintained his innocence. The Associated Press and APM Reports in 2020 uncovered new evidence and severe flaws in that investigation, in the end leading to the creation of an impartial legal panel to assessment the case.

That led the state pardons board to commute Burrell’s sentence after he had spent greater than half his life in jail. Nevertheless, his pardon request was denied so his conviction for first-degree homicide remained on his document, making it nonetheless unlawful for him to have a gun.

Burrell’s subsequent pretrial listening to is about for Might 16.