A convicted killer who several prominent Democrats helped get released from prison in 2020 is back behind bars following a new conviction.
Nearly four years to the day that Myon Demarlo Burrell walked out of Stillwater Correctional Facility a free man following the commutation of his life sentence for the 2002 shooting murder of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards, Burrell was sentenced to five years in prison for illegally possessing a firearm and fifth degree drug possession.
Burrell, now 38, was sentenced last week in a case stemming from an August 2023 traffic stop in Robbinsdale where police eventually found a Glock firearm with an extended magazine, along with various controlled substances in Burrell’s vehicle. Burrell was found guilty during a Hennepin County District Court bench trial in September.
Burrell spent 18 years in prison following his conviction on first-degree murder for the benefit of a gang related to the 2002 shooting in which Edwards was killed by an errant bullet that entered her south Minneapolis home while she sat at the dining room table doing her homework.
Following a review in December 2020 by the Minnesota Board of Pardons’ three-person panel that included Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, Walz and Ellison voted to commute Burrell’s sentence to 20 years and for him to be immediately released from prison. Gildea recused herself from the decision.
Activists, including Mary Moriarty, prior to being elected Hennepin County attorney, spent years advocating to have Burrell’s sentence commuted, citing his young age of 16 at the time of the crime. Moriarty spent decades as a public defender prior to being elected as the top prosecutor in Hennepin County. She even paid Burrell to work on her election campaign following his release from prison.
Following Burrell’s 2023 arrest and charges, the Minnesota Freedom Fund supplied $100,000 cash bail for his release from jail. While out on MFF’s bail, Burrell was arrested and charged in another drug case in May 2024, when he was pulled over in a vehicle as part of an investigation by the Hennepin County Violent Offender Task Force (VOTF). The task force was acting on a tip that Burrell was reported to be involved in drug sales and had been seen with a gun. The May case on a charge of fifth degree drug possession remains open and active.
Burrell is expected to serve two-thirds of his 5-year sentence incarcerated, or 40 months, barring a Department of Corrections sentence reduction, with an expected release date in April 2028. Burrell’s attorney is expected to file an appeal in the case.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
