Minneapolis man gets 16-year prison sentence for murder conviction
Booking photo for Nelson Randolph III. Credit: Hennepin County Jail
Court documents show a Minneapolis man found guilty of two charges filed in connection to his 7-year-old son’s fentanyl overdose death will be spending more than a decade in prison.
On Monday, 46-year-old Nelson Randolph III was sentenced by Judge Jean Burdorf to serve just over 16 years at the St. Cloud prison for one count of second-degree murder. Judge Burdorf allowed 101 days of credit for time already spent behind bars.
As previously reported, Nelson was also found guilty of one count of second-degree manslaughter. However, since that charge is considered to be lesser charge, no sentence was given.
A criminal complaint states Randolph’s son and daughter were dropped off at his home on Aug. 16, 2022. The following morning, police and medics were called to his home after his son was found unresponsive. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene.
The complaint goes on to say Randolph went into his son’s bedroom shortly before 7 a.m. that morning and noticed a white substance around his son’s mouth. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined the boy died from acute fentanyl toxicity.
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When officers searched Randolph’s home the next month, they found baggies of tablets of various shapes and colors, which investigators noted made them look like chewable vitamins for kids. Those pills tested positive for fentanyl.
In a formal interview with police, Randolph said he never leaves any drugs out at his home, and he doesn’t use fentanyl but admitted the pills were his.