The families of two murder victims are voicing outrage after a plea deal from the office of a progressive Minneapolis prosecutor allowed the man who admitted killing their loved ones to serve both sentences simultaneously.
Marquez Hill-Turnipseed, 24, acknowledged that he fired the shots in two separate fatal attacks three years apart: the 2022 drive-by killing of Eloe Lomax and the 2025 shooting death of innocent bystander Stageina Whiting.
Rather than receiving back-to-back prison terms for the two deaths, Hill-Turnipseed was sentenced to concurrent terms totaling 40 years through a plea agreement reached by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s office.
Under Minnesota sentencing rules, Hill-Turnipseed is expected to serve about two-thirds of that sentence in prison, making him eligible for release in under 27 years, when he would be around 50 years old.
The outcome has angered relatives on both sides, who say two unrelated murders committed years apart — and the devastation left behind for two families — should not be treated as though they amount to one prison term.
‘They were two different people. They should have made trial on two different cases, not put together,’ Stageina’s mother, Tasha Blanks, told KARE 11.
‘He did them at two different times. Like, no.’
Eloe’s mother, Talanda Burks, also condemned the deal, saying the sentence failed to reflect the loss of two separate lives.
Marquez Hill-Turnipseed, 24, admitted being the gunman in the separate killings of Eloe Lomax in 2022 and Stageina Whiting in 2025 and has now been offered a lighter sentence
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, a former public defender and in office since 2023, has faced repeated criticism over her progressive approach to prosecutions and sentencing
‘He murdered my son first, and it should have been time for Eloe’s murder, then the young lady’s,’ she said.
‘And it shouldn’t have been joined together. He ruined two families.’
Stageina’s aunt, TT Toni, said the agreement failed to recognize that two entirely different lives had been taken and two families left to deal with their own devastating consequences.
‘How can you combine two lives together?’ she asked.
‘This child had a whole life over here. And this child had a whole life over here. So this family is grieving differently.
‘They lost so much over there with their son. We lost, this baby will have to grow up without her mother.’
The controversial resolution is the latest to put Moriarty at the center of a bitter argument over punishment, criminal justice reform and the rights of victims.
Moriarty has been branded by critics as one of America’s ‘wokest’ prosecutors.
Eloe Lomax was killed by Hill-Turnipseed in a 2022 drive-by shooting, three years before the gunman went on to kill innocent bystander Stageina Whiting
A former longtime public defender, she became Hennepin County Attorney in 2023, campaigning as a reformer determined to change traditional prosecutorial practices.
Her tenure has repeatedly generated controversy over charging and sentencing decisions, particularly in cases involving young defendants.
Critics, including law enforcement groups and some victims’ relatives, have accused her office of being overly lenient toward offenders, while her supporters argue her reforms are an overdue attempt to address inequities within the criminal justice system.
She has even previously clashed with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a fellow Democrat, over the handling of major criminal cases.
In Hill-Turnipseed’s case, the two murders occurred three years apart.
The first was the 2022 drive-by killing of Eloe Lomax.
Three years later came the deadly 2025 gunfire at Boom Island that killed Stageina Whiting, an innocent bystander.
Stageina Katraya Shapryia Whiting, 23 died after suffering a gunshot wound
Five others were also hurt in the chaotic shooting where authorities say 130 shots were fired in June 2024
The scene of the latter shooting was described repeatedly during the sentencing hearing as resembling a ‘war zone.’
Police recovered a staggering 130 shell casings from the scene, which investigators determined were linked to five different firearms.
Senior Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Patrick Lofton described Stageina in court as ‘an innocent victim in a stupid war that never seems to end.’
Hill-Turnipseed was the shooter in both murders and eventually confessed to the killings after he was arrested in Chicago last year, according to KARE 11.
The two cases were then brought together as part of the plea agreement, with the sentences to run concurrently rather than one after another.
The victims’ relatives argued that each murder deserved to be treated independently because each victim had a separate life, a separate family and a separate group of loved ones left behind.
Judge Michael Burns made clear during the hearing that he understood why the arrangement had upset the victims’ relatives.
Burns has previously demonstrated that he is willing to challenge plea agreements negotiated by Moriarty’s office.
In 2023, the judge took the unusual step of rejecting an agreement involving Husayn Braveheart, one of the men responsible for killing Steve Markey, that would have kept Braveheart out of prison.
Mary Moriarty took over as Hennepin County attorney in January 2023 and has long come under fire for her approach to prosecutions
Burns referenced that earlier decision while explaining his approach to the Hill-Turnipseed case.
‘I certainly don’t see my job here as a rubber stamp for anything that the lawyers do,’ Burns said.
‘I understand people might not be happy with the negotiation in this case, but I’m going to follow the negotiation in this case.’
Before he was sentenced, Hill-Turnipseed apologized to the grieving relatives of the people he killed.
He then made a remark that angered the families when he attempted to compare what they were enduring with what his own relatives would experience while he was imprisoned.
‘My family got to go through the same thing,’ Hill-Turnipseed said.
Burns quickly rejected the comparison.
‘I’m looking at you right now,’ the judge told him. ‘You have not lost your life in the same way the family of Eloh and Stageina have.’
Moriarty’s office defended its handling of the case while acknowledging that no prison term could measure the worth of the two people who were killed.
Moriarty, a 35-year veteran public defender, has defended her sentencing guidelines
‘The number of years any defendant is sentenced to serve has never and will never reflect the value of the person whose life they took,’ a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.
‘That value is incalculable and the loss leaves scars that will never heal.’
The office said its decisions about resolving cases are driven principally by trial strategy and protecting the public.
‘Our decisions on which resolutions to seek are guided most heavily by case strategy and public safety,’ the statement continued.
‘Mr. Hill-Turnipseed will be removed for decades from the community he harmed.’
