AG Ellison recommends vacating conviction in 2008 murder of Jesse Mickelson

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has called for the conviction in the 2008 murder of 18-year-old Jesse Mickelson in Minneapolis to be vacated.

On Wednesday, Ellison’s office recommended that the 1st-degree murder conviction of Edgar Barrientos be vacated and that the charges against him be dismissed, which comes after a three-year investigation by the office’s Conviction Review Unit.

Mickelson was killed in a drive-by shooting on Oct. 11, 2008 in his neighbor’s driveway behind Roosevelt High School in south Minneapolis.

The shooting was believed to be gang-related, and Mickelson was not thought to be the target.

During his trial, two witnesses identified Barrientos as the shooter. He was convicted of the murder in 2009.

The CRU has since reviewed evidence supporting Barrientos’ claim that he was in the Maplewood area at the time of the shooting, according to Ellison’s office. That includes surveillance footage from a Cub Foods in St. Paul's East Side 33 minutes before the shooting, and phone records showing he was at his girlfriend’s Maplewood apartment 27 minutes after the shooting.

Witnesses also described the shooter as bald or having a shaved head, but video footage showed Barrientos was not bald on the day of the shooting.

Investigators waited weeks to show a witness a photo lineup after images of Barrientos had already been published in the media, the announcement added.

Witnesses also stated that the shooting was carried out by at least three people, but Barrientos was the only person convicted in the murder.