Man acquitted of murder in Coon Rapids fentanyl-related death

A Minneapolis man who was charged with murder for another man’s death in Coon Rapids more than two years ago has been found not guilty.

Court records show 38-year-old Brett Dwayne Dzubey-Percy was acquitted of third-degree murder Wednesday by Judge Suzanne Brown.

Dzubey-Percy was charged in September 2022 for the death of Joshua Shattuck, which happened in July 2021, and opted for a court trial rather than one with a jury. Shattuck’s death was ruled as being caused by fentanyl.

As previously reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, the victim’s mother told authorities he’d just finished intensive detox and rehab treatment in Detroit about two months earlier before returning to live with her and his father, a criminal complaint states.

A criminal complaint states that Shattuck’s phone showed a message with slang for “need heroin” on June 29, 2021. Other messages sent the next day appeared to indicate a price and meeting place, and a 33-second phone call later followed.

Prosecutors tried to link Dzubey-Percy to the phone number Shattuck had messaged. However, in her ruling, Judge Brown noted that Dzubey-Percy denied it was his phone number and there wasn’t any other evidence that it was Dzubey-Percy’s number. Additionally, she determined that the state never linked Dzubey-Percy to the person known as “Twin” in the cellphone, that he participated in the drug deal or even that Shattuck died from consuming fentanyl from the baggie on which Dzubey-Percy’s DNA was found.