Double killer given 41-year prison term

Article by: TASNIM SHAMMA , Star Tribune
Updated: June 16, 2011 - 9:12 PM

Carlos Heard of Minneapolis was convicted of shooting his brother and another man in 2005.

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A Hennepin County District judge sentenced a Minneapolis man Thursday to 41 years in prison for shooting and killing his brother and another man in June 2005.

Last month, a jury deliberated more than a day and a half before convicting Carlos Heard of the slayings. On Thursday morning, he was sentenced to 180 months for third- degree murder and an additional 313 months for second-degree murder.

Heard, 41, was accused in July 2010 of fatally shooting his brother, Jermaine Heard, in a struggle for a handgun and then pressing the barrel of the weapon against the back of Leroy Kennedy III and killing him before fleeing the scene.

At sentencing, Judge Toddrick Barnette heard victim impact statements from three of Kennedy's children and his brother.

Heard's lawyer maintained that Heard was innocent and had not been at the scene. In a statement to the court, Heard expressed sympathy for the families left behind but said he -- Carlos Heard -- was suffering the most.

"I love [my brother] very dearly, and I never knew this other guy [Kennedy]," Heard said, looking around the courtroom. "Everybody wants to say that I'm this monster. ... I could never leave my brother. I was the person he looked up to."

Charges said the crimes stemmed from Jermaine Heard giving Kennedy a large sum of money to promote a concert. When the concert didn't pan out, Jermaine Heard tried in vain to get his money back from Kennedy.

Jermaine and Carlos Heard confronted Kennedy at 17th and Fremont Avenues in north Minneapolis, the charges said. Carlos Heard and his brother "struggled over the gun," and it went off. Carlos Heard then shot Kennedy multiple times, authorities alleged.

In a police interview last year, a man told police that Carlos Heard was depressed and unstable because he had "accidentally shot his brother." The same officer interviewed Carlos Heard and showed him a photo of his brother, prompting the defendant to start crying, according to the charges.

Tasnim Shamma • 612-673-7603 Twitter: @TasnimS