MINNEAPOLIS — A judge has sentenced a Minnesota man on gun and drug charges in a case that drew attention because he was sentenced to life in prison as a teenager in a high-profile murder case and served 18 years in prison before his sentence was commuted.
Hennepin County Judge Mark Kappelhoff ruled in a “fixed evidence trial” that the evidence was sufficient to find Myon Burrell guilty of both possession of a firearm by an unauthorized person and fifth-degree drug possession. The prosecution and defense had previously agreed to let the judge decide the case based on mutually agreed-upon evidence rather than taking the case to trial.
Kappelhoff noted in his Friday ruling that both sides agreed that the ultimate resolution of the case will depend on a ruling by the Minnesota Court of Appeals on whether police in the Minneapolis suburb of Robbinsdale performed a valid stop and search in August 2023 when they found a gun and drugs in Burrell’s vehicle. The charges will be dropped if the appeals court finds the stop was unconstitutional, as the defense argues. No date has been set for sentencing.
Burrell was previously convicted in the 2002 death of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards, a Minneapolis girl who was struck by a stray bullet. Burrell, 16 at the time of the killing, was sentenced to life in prison. He has maintained his innocence. The Associated Press and APM Reports uncovered new evidence in 2020 and serious shortcomings in that research, ultimately leading to creation of an independent legal panel to review the matter.
That led to the state pardon board commuting Burrell’s sentence after he had spent more than half his life in prison. His request for clemency was denied, however, so his 2008 first-degree murder conviction remained on his record, making it illegal for him to possess a gun.
Evidence from his arrest last year included statements from the arresting officer, who said he saw Burrell driving erratically, and that when he pulled Burrell over, smoke was coming from the window and he smelled a strong odor of burning marijuana. Burrell failed a field test to determine if he was driving under the influence. The search turned up a gun and pills, some of which field tested positive for methamphetamine and ecstasy.
Another judge, Peter Cahill, decided during the preliminary procedure that the stop and frisk were legal. Burrell’s attorneys had argued that the officer lacked sufficient justification to conduct the stop, and that the odor of marijuana the officer cited was not a strong enough reason for the frisk, given a ruling last year by the Minnesota Supreme Court that odor alone is not probable cause for a frisk.
A separate drug charge stemming from a May arrest remains pending. Burrell has a hearing in that case on Sept. 23.