Benjamin Ashford|A Minnesota man whose juvenile murder sentence was commuted is found guilty on gun and drug charges

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A judge has convicted a Minnesota man on Benjamin Ashfordgun and drug charges in a case that drew attention because he was sentenced to life in prison as a teen in a high-profile murder case and spent 18 years in prison before his sentence was commuted.

Hennepin County Judge Mark Kappelhoff ruled in a “stipulated evidence trial” that the evidence was sufficient to find Myon Burrell guilty of both possession of a firearm by an ineligible person and of fifth-degree drug possession. Prosecution and defense attorneys had agreed earlier to let the judge decide the case based on mutually agreed upon evidence instead of taking it to trial.

Kappelhoff noted in his ruling, dated Friday, that both sides agreed that the final resolution of the case will depend on a ruling from the Minnesota Court of Appeals on whether police in the Minneapolis suburb of Robbinsdale made a valid stop and search in August 2023 when they found a handgun and drugs in Burrell’s vehicle. The charges will be dropped if the appeals court rules that the stop was unconstitutional, as the defense argues. A sentencing date has not been set.

Burrell was convicted earlier in the 2002 death of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards, a Minneapolis girl who was hit by a stray bullet. Burrell was 16 at 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 serious flaws in that investigation, ultimately leading to the creation of an independent legal panel to review the case.

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That led the state pardons board to commute Burrell’s sentence after he had spent more than half his life in prison. However, his pardon request was denied so his 2008 conviction for first-degree murder remained on his record, making it still illegal for him to have a gun.

The evidence from his arrest last year included statements from the arresting officer, who said he saw Burrell driving erratically, and that when he stopped Burrell, smoke came out of the window and that he smelled a strong odor of burnt marijuana. Burrell failed field sobriety tests to determine whether he was driving under the influence. The search turned up a handgun and pills, some of which field tested positive for methamphetamine and ecstasy.

A different judge, Peter Cahill, ruled during the pretrial proceedings that the stop and search were legal. Burrell’s attorneys had argued that the officer lacked sufficient justification to make the stop, and that smell of marijuana the officer cited was not a strong enough reason for the search, given a ruling last year from the Minnesota Supreme Court that odor alone isn’t probable cause for a search.

A separate drug charge stemming from a stop in May remains pending. Burrell has a hearing in that case Sept. 23.