Suspect in 2019 northeast Minneapolis homicide takes plea deal, will continue treatment

Suspect in 2019 northeast Minneapolis homicide takes plea deal, will continue treatment

Suspect in 2019 northeast Minneapolis homicide takes plea deal, will continue treatment

A second person involved in a 2019 homicide in northeast Minneapolis has pleaded guilty and will continue to receive treatment.

Husayn Braveheart was 15 when he and another teen allegedly planned to rob Steven Markey while he was in a parked car near 14th Avenue Northeast and Tyler Street Northeast, court documents state. Instead, Markey ended up shot and, trying to escape, crashed his car into a building about a block away. He later died at a hospital.

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Braveheart’s partner in the crime, Jered Ohsman, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Braveheart, who is charged with aiding and abetting murder, has been receiving treatment over the past four years to address trauma and abuse he’s dealt with, and prosecutors with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office say it’s been working.

As part of his plea deal, Braveheart would avoid jail time in favor of continued, carefully-monitored treatment and other programming. If he slips up, he’d face a 21-year prison sentence, just like Ohsman.

“My commitment to Stephen Markey’s family is that we will do everything we can to prevent another family from suffering such a tragic, senseless, and devastating loss,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Friday. “Mr. Braveheart has shown he is responsive to the carefully-selected programming he has received over the past four years. If we disrupt that progress, we will jeopardize public safety and risk everything when he comes back to the community. We cannot take that risk.”

Braveheart’s sentencing is set for Oct. 23.

Just as they were Friday, the family of Markey will likely pack the courtroom during Braveheart’s sentencing, set for Oct. 23.

“My family has experienced inexplicable, explicable pain and tragedy,” Susan Markey, the sister of Steven Markey, said, adding about the plea deal: “Mary Moriarity has decided that my [brother’s] life does not justify a sentence in prison.”

While Moriarty says the public’s safety was key in her decision-making surrounding this, the Markey family disagrees and feels this is not the case to help reach her goal of transforming the juvenile justice system.

“I think that it’s an absolute outrage and it’s devastating to my family,” Susan Markey said. “And, it’s devastating for all the people in the county.”

Family also say they’re open to getting Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison stepping in and taking over the case, just as the two did recently surrounding a different murder case involving two teens where Moriarty tried to keep them in the juvenile system.

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“We certainly would love it if [the governor and attorney general] would like to do that in this case as well,” Susan said.