MINNEAPOLIS — The message repeated by Tuesday Sheppard since February – when her son and Minneapolis North sophomore Deshaun Hill was shot and killed – is that she wants justice.
She and Deshaun's father repeated it again Monday.
"I just want justice for my son. That's all I need to say. The only thing you need to understand is we want justice for my son, D-Hill.
But justice for Deshaun's family will have to wait after Judge Julie Allyn granted a motion from the defense for a trial delay until the new year.
"We don't want to wait until January. We want it now. That's why we're here," one family member said after the hearing.
Cody Fohrenkam, 30, is charged with second-degree murder.
According to a criminal complaint, Hill possibly brushed shoulders with Fohrenkam while walking down the sidewalk of Golden Valley Road. The complaint also said Fohrenkam looked like the shooter seen on surveillance video and that he admitted to being in the area at the time of the shooting.
But the delay was granted in part to give Fohrenkam's attorneys more time to prepare because prosecutors just recently turned over more evidence for the first time. That includes, according to the defense, police body camera footage and surveillance video that attorneys hadn't seen before.
Monday was supposed to be the start of jury selection, which is now scheduled to begin on Jan. 17, 2023. The hardest part for Deshaun's family is that they'll go through the holidays with the trial still looming.
The justice system has been very frustrating to Hill's family.
"The max he's going to get is 32 years right now. Obviously, if someone kills a kid and they intentionally kill a kid – shoot him in the head – they should probably get more than 32 years," one of Hill's family members said Monday.
Deshaun – lovingly called D-Hill by most everyone who knew him – was North High's starting quarterback at just age 15 and a star basketball player and model student as well.
"Everybody loves him," his mom Tuesday Sheppard said.
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