Man sentenced for role in 2022 Minneapolis murder
Mugshot for Brian Swearegene. Credit: Hennepin County Jail
A man convicted of having a role in the fatal shooting of a 28-year-old Minneapolis man has learned his punishment.
On Friday, Hennepin County Judge Tamara Garcia sentenced Brian Pierre Swearegene to 21 years (252 months) in prison, with credit for 444 days already served.
As previously reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, Swearegene pleaded guilty in April to aiding and abetting second-degree murder for the death of Darrell Lamont Sims II, of Brooklyn Park.
Sims was fatally shot before 10 p.m. on Saturday, April 2, 2022. He was found in a backyard near Elliot Avenue South and East 24th Street but later died at an area hospital.
Swearegene was initially charged by warrant of illegally possessing a gun or ammunition. He was eventually arrested in Superior, Wisconsin back in September of 2022 by members of the Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force and the U.S. Marshals North Star Fugitive Task Force.
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Court documents show Swearegene was the second person to be charged in Sims’ death.
His co-defendant, Dajohn Cortez Ramon Yarborough, was sentenced last month to serve 40 years in prison for one count of second-degree intentional murder and one count of illegal firearm possession.
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As previously reported, the shooting was one of four separate shootings that happened in Minneapolis during a single, overnight period.