67-year-old pleads guilty, gets 20 years for 1984 Minneapolis murder

A 67-year-old pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in connection with a cold case murder on Wednesday. He has credit for 457 days already served.

As part of a plea deal, in exchange for Matthew Russell Brown pleading guilty to second-degree murder, counts of first-degree murder and first-degree burglary were dismissed at sentencing.

As previously reported, Minneapolis police responded to an apartment on Girard Avenue South early in the morning on July 19, 1984. When they got to the scene, two women ran out of the apartment — one had a bleeding cut on her face and the other was unharmed but extremely distraught.

The women told police that a man had broken into the apartment and attacked them with a knife.

Inside the apartment, officers found Robert A. Miller dead on the floor with several stab wounds.

Since the time of the murder, DNA analysis has improved greatly. DNA found at the scene eventually led to Brown being identified as a suspect.