Family of teen killed at north Minneapolis birthday party rebukes plea deal
A teenager who has admitted to shooting and killing another teen in Minneapolis, for now, is not expected to spend any time in an adult prison. The family of the victim is distraught.
On Friday, family members of 15-year-old Aundre Loyd came to Juvenile Court in Hennepin County to make their distaste heard. They pushed for Judge Matthew Frank to reject the terms of a plea deal offered by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors initially explored trying the 16-year-old boy as an adult after he shot and killed Loyd in November. Instead, the sentencing for the teenager falls under a process known as Extended Jurisdiction Juvenile, which postpones an adult sentence until his 21st birthday.
In this case, the teen will remain in juvenile detention for around 18 to 30 months. From there, probation will kick in with conditions that include engaging in programs related to anger management and mental health. Frank went far beyond the prosecution's request for prison time, should the stayed sentence come into play; if the teenager commits another crime and violates certain criteria, he will face about 25 years in prison.
Loyd's mother, Aigner Watt, said that Loyd was her "everything."
According to Minneapolis Police, the teen shot Loyd in the head in a basement during a birthday party in Minneapolis last November. The shooting came after an argument, Frank said in court Friday. Watt, Loyd's uncle and his grandmother gave emotional impact statements in court, urging the judge to put the shooter in prison.
"The defendant did not make a juvenile mistake. They made an adult decision to permanently end a life," Loyd's uncle Aaron Loyd said to the judge. "Aundre was handed a life sentence of silence. We are handed a life sentence of grief."
Multiple family members had to excuse themselves, overcome with emotion.
The shooter did not look at the gallery or at the people making impact statements, though he did make a statement of his own, asking forgiveness. He said that he intends to run with better crowds and apply to carpentry school in the future. Josephine Johnson, Loyd's grandmother, said that's an opportunity that Loyd will never have.
"Justice was not served. Because that guy knew what he did when he pulled that gun and shot my grandchild in the head," Johnson said.
Frank acknowledged the raw emotion in the room, taking his time in explaining his sentence. He said that to a certain degree, his hands were tied based on the plea deal, which prosecutors said was reviewed by the "highest levels" of the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. The judge said that, ultimately, throwing the shooter in prison would make it more difficult to achieve rehabilitation.
Frank spoke directly to the shooter, acknowledging that the teen had a difficult life with past trauma involving losing his own loved ones to gun violence. He alluded to angry outbursts that the teen had had in the past, but this time, in the Minneapolis basement in November, he had access to a gun.
"We missed on some opportunities earlier in life, in your life, to help you not arrive where you are today," Frank said.
The teenager's case and status will be reviewed in late August.
Loyd was a freshman at Cooper High School in New Hope, Minnesota. He graduated from Sojourner Truth Academy in Minneapolis last year. His dream was to become a basketball player; his mom believes he was on track to be a star.
