Hennepin Co. to re-try man in killing of Deshaun Hill after Minnesota Supreme Court denies to review overturned conviction
MINNEAPOLIS — The Hennepin County Attorney's Office announced Tuesday it is seeking to re-try a man accused of killing a Minneapolis high school student-athlete in 2022.
The announcement comes after the Minnesota Supreme Court denied to review a lower court ruling that overturned the second-degree murder conviction of Cody Fohrenkam.
Fohrenkam was sentenced to 38.5 years in prison for the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Deshaun Hill Jr. on Feb. 9, 2022. In May, Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Renee Worke reversed Fohrenkam's conviction and called for a new trial.
Hill was killed while walking to a bus stop on Golden Valley Road near Penn Avenue North, just blocks from Minneapolis North High School, where he was a star quarterback and honor roll student. Students had been released early from school that day and were encouraged to attend a protest in connection to the fatal police shooting of Amir Locke.
Surveillance video showed Hill and Fohrenkam walking past each other, then Fohrenkam stopping and turning toward Hill before three gunshots were heard. Witnesses told police they saw Fohrenkam running from the area after shots rang out.
Fohrenkam told investigators he was in the area looking for someone who stole his phone.
Worke's ruling overturning the conviction said incriminating statements were illegally collected during a jailhouse interview with Fohrenkam.
In his appeal, Fohrenkam says statements he made to investigators in the Carlton County Jail should not have been presented during his trial because they were made after a court ordered his release.
In her ruling, Worke said the state failed to meet its burden to show that his statements were lawfully obtained. It also placed the blame on the judge.
The attorney's office says it plans to prosecute Fohrenkam on two counts of second-degree murder — the original charges he faced.