Man indicted for 2022 double homicide in Minneapolis

A grand jury has indicted a man in connection to a double homicide in Minneapolis last year.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced the indictment Friday, saying 20-year-old Lavell Jacvon Piggie, from Kansas City, Missouri, is charged by the grand jury with two counts of first-degree murder in connection to a shooting last winter that left two people dead.

Piggie had already been charged with two counts of second-degree murder since last March.

In Minnesota, a first-degree murder conviction carries a penalty of life in prison, while second-degree murder carries up to 40 years in prison.

Prosecutors say the killings stemmed from a suspected dispute over a significant quantity of missing drugs.

Minneapolis police were called to the area of North 21st and Sheridan avenues at around 3:45 p.m. on Feb. 10, 2022, on a report of shots fired. There, officers saw a four-door sedan that had jumped a curb and stopped in a snowbank. Inside the vehicle, two men with apparent gunshot wounds were found dead.

The victims were later identified as 23-year-old Malik Travon Carr-Riggins and 30-year-old Case Samuel Ritzman.

The attorney’s office says officers used a combination of phone data, surveillance footage and witness accounts and spotted Piggie getting into the sedan with the victims and the driving across north Minneapolis for around eight minutes. Surveillance video then caught the sound of eight gunshots and Piggie was seen getting out of the vehicle and fleeing.

Officers later found “significant amounts” of suspected crack cocaine, marijuana, fentanyl and other drugs, as well as more than $3,000 in cash and a bag full of .40-caliber live rounds in Piggie’s home.

He remains in custody on $2 million bail, and a trial is tentatively scheduled to start June 26.