Sentenced tossed out for man convicted in 2016 murder of Minneapolis grandmother Birdell Beeks
Joshua Ezeka was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the 2016 murder of Minneapolis grandmother Birdell Beeks. (Hennepin County Jail / FOX 9)
(FOX 9) - The Minnesota Supreme Court tossed out the sentence Wednesday for the man convicted in the 2016 murder of Minneapolis grandmother Birdell Beeks.
In May 2016, Beeks, 58, was shot and killed as she sat in her minivan at a stop sign with her 16-year-old granddaughter at the intersection of 21st Avenue North and Penn Avenue North in Minneapolis.
Birdell Beeks died in May 2016 after her vehicle was caught in the gunfire of what police said was a gang-motivated shooting. (FOX 9)
Joshua Ezeka, now 24, was eventually arrested in Beeks’ murder.
In 2018, a jury found him guilty of attempted first-degree premeditated murder and five other counts. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Ezeka appealed the case.
On Wednesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court issued its ruling Ezeka’s appeal, affirming his convictions, but reversing his sentence for attempted first-degree premeditated murder and directed the Hennepin County district court to resentence him on that offense.
The Supreme Court said the district court sentenced Ezeka to 360 months in prison on the conviction of attempted first-degree premeditated murder. The Supreme Court said that was an error because the statutory maximum for that offense is 240 months.