MINNEAPOLIS — Continuing litigation stemming from one of the most gruesome murders in recent Minneapolis history will now be handled by the Ramsey County Attorney's Office after an internal memo penned by prosecutors last week laid out the conflict of interest posed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty.
In the months prior to announcing her campaign, Moriarty assisted in the defense of Brian Flowers, one of the people convicted in the 2008 murder of Katricia Daniels and her 10-year-old son Robert Shepard.
In the memo obtained by KARE 11 News, Senior Assistant County Attorneys Brittany Lawonn and Nicholas Linstroth expressed concern they would be forced to seek a lesser sentence for Flowers if the decision-making authority remained with someone who reports directly to Moriarty.
"We do not believe that we can support an ideological about-face in this case," Lawonn and Linstroth wrote. "We respectfully request, therefore, that if the Hennepin County Attorney or her designee opts to pursue concurrent sentences, that the case be reassigned to new prosecutors."
The crime
In June 2008, Katricia's fiancé found the 36-year-old woman stabbed 193 times in her home in South Minneapolis. Robert was dead from 30 stab wounds and a tube-style television had been dropped on his head. Daniels' 16-month-old daughter was left alone in the house with blood on her onesie.
"These are among the worst, if not the worst I've probably ever seen," Hennepin County Medical Examiner Andrew Baker testified concerning the sheer number of injuries sustained by Katricia and Robert.
"Of all the homicides committed by juveniles in Hennepin County, this is by far the most heinous," Lawonn and Linstroth wrote.
In 2009, Brian Flowers and Stafon Thompson were convicted in separate trials of first-degree premeditated murder. Thompson was 17 at the time of the crime and Flowers was one month away from turning 17. They knew the victims, and Katricia had opened her home to the teens to spend the night.
After their trials, Flowers and Thompson were each sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
When the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that juvenile offenders must have a chance at one day being released, both defendants were ordered to be re-sentenced.
Flowers' new sentence can go one of two ways. The two life sentences – one for each victim – can be run currently, which would make him eligible for release after 30 years. Or the sentences can run consecutively, which would make him eligible for release after 60 years.
There have been several appeals and legal challenges delaying Flowers' re-sentencing hearing, but Lawonn and Linstroth, working under Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman for years, had been pushing for consecutive sentences.
The conflict of interest
In the months prior to announcing her campaign for Hennepin County Attorney, Moriarty helped Flowers' defense team prepare for evidentiary hearings. She met with him in prison and prepped him for upcoming testimony.
In recorded jail phone calls from 2021, Flowers can be heard bragging about one strategy for getting out of prison, "something to do with Miss Mary," he said, adding that he does not want to discuss that option over the phone.
Then in recorded prison calls in the days following Moriarty's election in Nov. 2022, Flowers was celebratory.
"Once I seen Miss Mary Moriarty win I was just like it’s time to go to sleep. It’s all good now. I’m just. I’m just focusing on us having a healthy baby and me coming home. That’s it," Flowers said the day after the election.
Then, two days later in another call, Flowers said, "How does this affect me coming home? Because I spoke to her. And she believed in my innocence because she worked on my case. And so, she can’t necessarily work on my case right now because she has to recuse herself but her being a boss – she – she has some say so in what goes on in people’s cases – you know what I’m saying?"
The eight-page internal memo written by Lawonn and Linstroth on April 11 is addressed to Sarah Davis, Moriarty's director of the Children and Families Division, and it is CC'd to six other people in the office.
The prosecutors in the memo seem to critique Moriarty's initial decision to recuse herself from the case but still give Davis decision-making abilities. Davis is one of Moriarty's most trusted advisors and is taking the lead in carrying the juvenile justice reform Moriarty promised while campaigning.
"We understand the elected official’s remedy to that conflict is to attempt to wall herself off from the case while vesting all decision-making authority in you, one of her direct reports," Lawonn and Linstroth wrote. "Those interests are best served by designating decision-making authority with another county attorney who has not formed an attorney-client relationship with the defendant."
In addition, Lawonn and Linstroth made it clear they no longer wanted to be assigned to the case if Davis or any of Moriarty's other senior leaders asked them to seek a lower sentence for Flowers.
"At each turn, we committed to pursuing the family members’ desired outcome of consecutive sentences. We then stridently argued for that position on the record. It remains the position we feel is most appropriate in this case," they wrote. "We respectfully request that the case be reassigned to a new assistant county attorney if the present administration decides to chart a different course forward by adopting a position we have spent the duration of our time on the case arguing against."
The decision
On Tuesday, one week after the memo was distributed, a court hearing for Flowers was canceled and Moriarty's spokesperson Nick Kimball confirmed to KARE 11 News that the case would be turned over to the Ramsey County Attorney's Office.
Kimball said the decision was not made because of the memo, but that senior staff had been having discussions since March when the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled against Flowers regarding the screening of jail and prison calls.
In a statement, Kimball wrote in full:
"Building community trust in the idea that justice is possible for everyone in Hennepin County is central to why Mary ran for county attorney. Actual or potential conflicts of interest that aren’t addressed can often be a reason the public loses confidence in government officials.
This case presented a conflict for County Attorney Moriarty because of her past work as a criminal defense attorney, which is why she has not been involved in any aspect of the case since she took office. The matter was delegated to another senior leader in the office, and County Attorney Moriarty was screened from participation. At the time the case was assigned to the senior leader, nothing was happening in the matter. The case was pending at the Minnesota Supreme Court for more than a year. After the Supreme Court issued a decision in March and the case was sent back to the district court for further action, several senior office leaders engaged in additional internal deliberation about the conflict. The senior leaders ultimately determined, out of an abundance of caution, that the best course of action was to refer the case out to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, which has agreed to take the case.
It is common practice for one county attorney’s office to accept case responsibility over a case from another county as one way to manage actual and potential conflicts for the county of jurisdiction, and the senior leadership in the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office took this step out of an abundance of caution in this case."
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