Minneapolis Man Found Guilty In Murder Case

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Minneapolis man was found guilty of second-degree intentional murder Thursday in Hennepin County Court.

Lonnell Javey Powell, 23, had opted for a bench trial, and now sentencing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on June 8. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office will argue for the maximum prison term of 439 months.

According to the complaint, Powell, also known as Lonnell Javay Thomas, and two other men arrived at a party about 11 p.m. on Sept. 2, 2011, at a duplex in the 2500 block of Logan Ave. N. Shortly before midnight an argument turned into a fight, but the two men and the three women in the home were able to get the trio out of the duplex.

The complaint states that Powell and his friends went to a minivan parked in the street, retrieved a gun, and Powell went back into the house and shot at the two men who had forced them out, killing Shabar Hildebran.

In a separate case, Charlie Lewis, 49, of Minneapolis, was sentenced to 20 years in prison following his conviction in late March for first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

According to the complaint, on the evening of July 22, 2004, a woman was sitting in Farview Park in North Minneapolis after a bike ride when Lewis came up and started talking to her. Eventually, Lewis started kissing her and when she resisted, he punched her in the face multiple times and raped her.

The case had gone cold until 2010, when the DNA evidence from the assault was compared to DNA from convicted felons and it matched Lewis.