Minneapolis Man Sentenced To Life In Prison

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 29-year-old Minneapolis man has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder.

Tyrel Patterson's plea comes after he committed two murders in less than a month in 2016. The life sentence involves the possibility of release after 30 years, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.

Patterson entered his guilty plea before Hennepin County District Court Judge Jay Quam on Wednesday in the Oct. 29, 2016 murder of Richard Ambers.

Patterson, Ayan Wahab and Derrick Smith were at a Super America station around 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 29, according to court documents and Patterson's admissions, and Ambers was there attempting to sell marijuana.

Smith told Wahab to befriend Ambers and find out more about the money and drugs so they could rob him, as stated in the criminal complaint. Ambers and Wahab parked his car near Brandy Lee Jacques' house.

Wahab went into Jacques' home and discussed with Smith and Jacques how to rob Ambers, police said. Wahab then went back to the car and sat with Ambers for a few minutes until Patterson rapped on the vehicle's window. Wahab left the car and soon heard three gunshots, according to court documents.

A jury convicted Smith of first-degree murder earlier this year. Wahab and Jacques pleaded guilty to aiding an offender or accomplice after the fact.

Three weeks after the murder of Ambers, police said the same group, minus Wahab, robbed and killed James Herron in his Prior Lake home on Nov. 23, 2016.

Patterson was already convicted and sentenced in the Herron murder before Wednesday's plea.