Court overturns murder conviction of Minneapolis man after deadly wake shooting

On By Pranco

A Minneapolis man found guilty of manslaughter in 2021 saw his conviction overturned by an appeals court.

Deandre Dontae Turner was convicted by a jury in July 2023 for one count of first-degree murder in Hennepin County District Court.

According to a criminal complaint, police responded to a report recordings just before 9 p.m. on June 30, 2021outside the Elks Lodge at North Plymouth Avenue and Knox Avenue. The victim, later identified as AJ “Drew” McGinley, 37, was found dead outside the club. An autopsy revealed that he had been shot five times.

Investigators learned that McGinley had gathered with dozens of others at a wake for an acquaintance who had recently died.

Surveillance video obtained by police shows McGinley got into a brief fight with other men during the vigil. He fell to the ground, but got back up, threw his hands in the air and walked away. The video then shows a man walking behind McGinley before pointing a gun and shooting him several times at close range, causing McGinley to fall over and the crowd to disperse, the complaint said.

The video then shows the shooter getting into the passenger side of a silver vehicle and leaving the scene.

On November 18, 2024, an appeals court judge overturned the conviction due to evidentiary errors and prosecutorial misconduct.

Court records show that the quality of the surveillance videos was “extremely poor,” resulting in the shooter being identified only by the color of his clothing and the shooter’s face not visible.

A few weeks after the shooting, a witness spoke to police and did not mention Turner’s name during the interview, but agreed that Turner shot McGinley after a sergeant suggested it.

According to court documents, police also did not find the gun used to kill the victim or any DNA evidence linking a specific person to the shooting.

It was argued that Turner is entitled to a new trial due to improperly admitted evidence and numerous acts of misconduct during closing and rebuttal arguments.

The Hennepin County Prosecutor’s Office has 30 days to appeal the appeals court’s decision or decide to retry the case.