Key witness confesses to woman’s 1998 murder for which Minnesota man is serving life in prison

The conviction and life prison sentence of a man for the vicious murder of an elderly woman in her Minneapolis apartment nearly three decades ago was a failure of justice, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and the Great North Innocence Project.

In a shocking turn of events, the state’s key witness in the 1998 trial that convicted Bryan Hooper, then 27, of first-degree murder has confessed to not only lying on the witness stand but carrying out the murder herself. The confession led the Great North Innocence Project to file a petition to vacate Hooper’s conviction for murdering 77-year-old Ann Prazniak.

Prazniak was found dead inside her bedroom closet. She had beige packaging tape wrapped several times over her mouth and died of asphyxiation before being shoved inside a box. The crime rattled Minneapolis as Prazniak’s body wasn’t found for two weeks, despite her landlord and police entering the apartment to look for her on several occasions.

At a news conference announcing the petition, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office could no longer stand behind the conviction.

“Bryan Hooper has maintained his innocence for 27 years,” Moriarty said. She turned to face Hooper’s daughter and other family members and said, “I’m sorry on behalf of our office.”

Briana Hooper, Bryan’s daughter, praised the efforts of prosecutors and investigators to look deeper into the case after nearly three decades.

“He is an innocent man,” Briana said of her father. “And he has always been an innocent man.”

In the weeks before her body was found, neighbors had said that numerous people were coming in and out of Prazniak’s apartment at 1818 Park Av. to use drugs and have sex. Eight people were charged with burglary in connection with the case.

Hooper had admitted to using the apartment but Chalaka Lewis, who was with Hooper at the apartment, testified at trial that she had seen Hooper enter Prazniak’s apartment and she stood outside and handed him the tape. When she entered several minutes later, Hooper told her not to enter the closet.

Hooper has claimed from the beginning that Lewis, the state’s main witness in the trial, had committed the killing. DNA evidence showed Lewis’ fingerprint on the packaging tape that was used to tie up and suffocate Prazniak. No DNA evidence linked Hooper to the killing.

Several other witnesses who testified at Hooper’s trial submitted affidavits that their testimony was untrue over the years. Hooper’s appeal for a new trial reached the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2013. At the time, Hooper claimed Lewis had admitted to the killing and he had an affidavit from the person she confessed to.

The Supreme Court ruled that a post-conviction board was correct in determining the new evidence was not enough to grant Hooper a new trial.

There is not a current plan to charge Lewis with murder, Moriarty said, adding that her office would first deal with the attempt to have Hooper’s conviction vacated. She said Lewis understood that her confession could lead to murder charges.

“She knows exactly what she’s getting into here,” Moriarty said. “She has a lot to lose.”

Moriarty said Lewis is serving time in a Georgia prison for aggravated battery and is due to be released within a few years. Moriarty said Lewis has felt a “stronger pull toward God” and if she is going to follow that path she can no longer allow Hooper to stay in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Jim Mayer, legal director of the Great North Innocence Project, said this was not a day for celebration.

“We are not here to pat ourselves on the back,” Mayer said. “The fact is that as we stand here, Bryan Hooper is still locked up in Stillwater prison and the Hooper family will never get back the decades they have lost.”

Andrew Markquart, who leads the CIU, said Hooper is one of 175 applications the office has received to review convictions. The office has reviewed 116, with 48 closed and 68 advanced for full investigations with 14 underway, including Hooper’s.

“If we’re going to stand up here and endorse an exoneration, it’s only going to be after a very thorough investigation,” Markquart said.

The case will now move to a Hennepin County District Court judge who will determine the next steps in considering whether Hooper should be released from Stillwater prison, where he is serving a life sentence.

Standing in the back of the room on Tuesday was Jeff Dean, an attorney who represented Hooper for years and believed in his innocence from day one. As the news conference ended, Briana Hooper walked up and hugged Dean.

Dean easily recalled the day-by-day details of the case and how police and prosecutors used “tunnel vision” to convict Hooper. He said Lewis, who confessed to the killing, did so without any return. He said she had gotten sober in prison, found Jesus and couldn’t live with the guilt from a crime carried out 27 years ago.