Court of Appeals Affirms Myon Burrell’s Conviction in Firearm and Narcotics Case

MINNEAPOLIS – An appeals court on Monday affirmed the conviction of a Minnesota man in a firearms and narcotics case, which landed him back in legal difficulties following the commutation of his life sentence in a widely publicized murder case.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals determined that the police search after a traffic stop, which led to Myon Burrell’s conviction on weapon and drug charges, was lawful.

The court dismissed the defense’s claims that the police lacked probable cause to extend their probe beyond the original traffic stop into an intoxication investigation, arguing that the vehicle search without a warrant was appropriate.

Burrell was 16 when he was arrested for the 2002 killing of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards, a Minneapolis girl struck by a stray bullet. He consistently claimed his innocence. In 2020, the Associated Press and APM Reports found new evidence and significant issues in the investigation, prompting the formation of an independent legal panel to reassess the case.

Burrell was released in 2020 after serving 18 years. The state’s pardon board commuted his sentence to time served after spending more than half his life in prison but did not grant a full pardon.

Later, in 2023, police in Robbinsdale, a Minneapolis suburb, discovered drugs and a handgun in his SUV during a traffic stop. Because his first-degree murder conviction remained, he was prohibited from possessing a firearm. He was found guilty on the weapon and drug charges last year and subsequently sentenced to five years. In Minnesota, inmates usually serve two-thirds of their sentences in custody and the remaining one-third on supervised release.

The arresting officer testified he saw Burrell driving erratically, and that when he stopped Burrell, smoke came out of the window and that he smelled a strong odor of burnt marijuana. Burrell failed field sobriety tests. The search turned up a handgun and pills, some of which field tested positive for methamphetamine and ecstasy.

The defense argued that the officer’s testimony was not credible because no smoke could be seen on his body camera or dashboard camera videos. But the appeals court said it found that argument to be unconvincing, and that it would defer to the trial court’s finding that the officer’s testimony was credible.

The three-judge panel similarly rejected Burrell’s challenges to the officer’s statements that Burrell’s eyes were bloodshot and his pupils were dilated, and that he saw marijuana residue on the SUV’s console.