Suspect in 2022 killing of Deshaun Hill in Minneapolis enters guilty plea
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Nearly four years after high school student-athlete Deshaun Hill was fatally shot in north Minneapolis, the man charged in his death entered a guilty plea on Tuesday.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said it reached the plea agreement with 33-year-old Cody Fohrenkam as a retrial was underway.
Fohrenkam had previously been convicted of killing the 15-year-old as he walked home from school in February 2022, but that conviction was overturned. An appeals court found that prosecutors failed to prove that police obtained statements from Forhenkam lawfully.
Under the terms of Tuesday’s plea agreement, Fohrenkam pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder. He’s set to receive a prison term of just over 28 years in prison — with credit for nearly four years of time served — when he is sentenced on March 2.
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“Deshaun Hill was beloved by his family, his friends and his community. He had an unforgettable impact on his peers and community, encouraging other students to stay in school and served as a beacon of light for youth in our community,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in statement following the plea. “To Deshaun’s loved ones, my thoughts are with you. I hope the resolution of this case after four long years brings a small measure of peace.”
The statement from Moriarty’s office noted that entering the retrial, prosecutors “faced significant evidentiary challenges that did not exist during the first trial, including the exclusion of Mr. Fohrenkam’s statement.”
“The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office believes that this plea agreement provides a measure of justice and finality to the family and community. The plea agreement also ensures that Mr. Fohrenkam cannot appeal any issues that could arise at a second trial.”
Court documents said witnesses and surveillance video put Fohrenkam at the scene of the shooting on Feb. 9, 2022. The complaint didn’t detail a motive, but prosecutors had said during the first trial that Fohrenkam grew increasingly angry after an unknown person punched him and stole his phone earlier that day.
After Deshaun left North High School around noon that day, Fohrenkam confronted him on a sidewalk and fired three shots. One struck Deshaun while he was walking away wearing an orthopedic boot because of a broken foot.
After Fohrenkam was first sentenced in 2023, Deshaun’s family, friends and coaches remembered him as a honor roll student and star athlete at North with a promising future — someone whom younger kids looked up to, and whose death caused pain not just to his family but to the entire community.
