Man Pleads Guilty In Fatal South Minneapolis Bar Shooting

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 43-year-old man arrested last October in North Dakota in connection with a fatal shooting at a south Minneapolis bar in August of 2013 pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder charges.

Ron Powell pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting death of a bystander at Champions Bar in south Minneapolis in the early-morning hours of Aug. 8, 2013. Powell was to go on trial Monday in the case, but pleaded guilty to murder to have second-degree assault and felon in possession of a firearm charges dropped.

Powell admitted in questioning that he was at Champions Bar on West Lake Street when another bar patron approached and started punching him. Witnesses at the bar said it was full because it was ladies night and there was also karaoke. The alleged assailant, Anthony Orlando Collins, had had previous altercations with Powell and was celebrating his birthday that night. When he saw Powell, he walked up to him and punched him. Powell fell to the floor, pulled out a gun and started shooting.

One of the shots fired hit 51-year-old Mark A. Stephenson, who was a bystander at the time who had no connection to either man and was killed.

Powell was sentenced to 15 years in jail for Stephenson's death with credit for 285 days already served.