Court overturns Minneapolis man’s murder conviction in fatal vigil shooting

A Minneapolis man who was found guilty of second-degree murder in 2021 had his conviction overturned by an appellate court.

Deandre Dontae Turner was convicted by a jury in July 2023 for one count of second-degree murder in Hennepin County Court.

According to a criminal complaint, police responded to a reported shooting just before 9 p.m. on June 30, 2021, outside the Elks Lodge at North Plymouth Avenue and Knox Avenue. The victim, later identified as AJ “Drew” McGinley, 37, was found dead outside the club. An autopsy determined he was shot five times.

Investigators learned that McGinley had gathered with dozens of others at a vigil for an acquaintance who had died recently.

Surveillance video obtained by police shows that McGinley got into a brief fight with other males at the vigil. He fell to the ground but stood back up, put his hands in the air and walked away. The video then shows a man walking up behind McGinley before aiming a gun and shooting him several times at close range, causing McGinley to fall over and the crowd to scatter, the complaint says.

The video then shows the shooter getting into the passenger side of a silver vehicle and leaving the scene.

On Nov. 18, 2024, an appellate court judge reversed the conviction due to evidence errors and prosecutorial misconduct.

Court records state that the surveillance video quality was “extremely poor,” and as a result, the shooter could only be identified by the color of his clothes and did not show the shooter’s face.

A few weeks after the shooting, a witness spoke to police and did not bring up Turner’s name during the interview but instead agreed that Turner shot McGinley after a sergeant suggested it.

Police also did not find the gun that killed the victim or any DNA evidence linking a specific person to the shooting, according to court documents.

It was argued that Turner is entitled to a new trial because of improperly admitted evidence and numerous types of misconduct during closing and rebuttal arguments.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has 30 days to appeal the appellate court’s decision or decide to re-try the case.