MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 35-year-old man told a judge Wednesday that his lawyer pressured him into pleading guilty to murder and attempted murder, but the judge wasn’t having it.
Ramsey County District Court Judge Edward Wilson denied Darrell Mandall Nickerson’s request to withdraw his guilty plea and sentenced him to 32 years in prison for killing Jamary Hearn in Minneapolis in 2012, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office says.
Nickerson told the judge he was only guilty of lying under oath, saying that his lawyer gave him bad directions.
The attorney’s office says prosecutors countered, saying that there’s no legal basis for Nickerson to withdraw his guilty plea, and that doing so would hurt the family of the victim.
In October, Wilson had accepted a plea to second-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. An indictment of first-degree murder was dropped as part of the agreement.
The charges stem from a July 2012 shooting where Nickerson and another man went to a south Minneapolis home, pulled guns on those inside and demanded money. Hearn was shot and killed, and his father suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
The case was heard in Ramsey County because Hearn’s mother is a Hennepin County District Court employee.
In a statement, she told Nickerson that he was “evil and a monster.” She also brought up Nickerson’s children, saying: “I hope someone intervenes and shows them love, and they become the complete opposite of you.”
