20-year-old guilty of murder in 2005 drive-by after basketball game

Last update: March 17, 2008 - 11:08 PM

A 20-year-old Minneapolis man was convicted Monday in the suspected gang-related murder of a 24-year-old man in south Minneapolis.

A Hennepin County jury found Marcus Champs guilty of intentional second-degree murder and second-degree murder in a drive-by shooting for the benefit of a gang in the death of Artaives Brown.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 9.

The shooting on Feb. 22, 2005, grew out of a confrontation during a basketball game at Roosevelt High School. After the game, two groups got in cars, with Champs' group chasing the other.

At the corner of 37th Street and Cedar Avenue S., Champs shot at Brown's car about five times after pulling in front of it. Someone in Brown's car drove him to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died of a gunshot to the head.

At the time, police said that Champs, then 17, was a member of a gang. His mother denied it but said some of his relatives were gang members.

Brown was an expectant father shortly before he was killed.

PAUL WALSH

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