Man acquitted in 2013 double homicide in Minneapolis

A Farmington man charged with killing two Minneapolis men in 2013 has been acquitted by a Hennepin County jury that deliberated for a week.

Dijon C. Sanders, 24, who was found not guilty Friday after a two-week trial in Hennepin County District Court, had been charged with second-degree intentional murder in the deaths of De'Von L. Burt, 18, and Keondray Q. Wilson, 20. He was also charged with shooting and wounding two women who were in the car with the men.

He was accused of spraying a car with gunfire in a south Minneapolis alley in August 2013. Police said they believed it was a case of mistaken identity, that he may have been targeting someone else.

Fred Goetz, Sanders' attorney, said prosecutors had credibility issues surrounding a witness' identification of Sanders as the shooter. They also didn't have enough evidence to prove that "Sanders was the one who committed this horrible crime," he said Monday.

It's unusual for a jury to deliberate for a week, but Goetz said jurors were very careful and thorough and "really took their job seriously."

"It's exactly what you want from a jury," he said.

Chuck Laszewski, spokesman for the Hennepin County attorney's office, said prosecutors were disappointed in the acquittal because "we thought we had sufficient evidence to convict Mr. Sanders."

According to the criminal complaint:

Witnesses saw two men running through the alley in the 2600 block of 18th Avenue S. about 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 25, 2013. Later, a witness told police the suspects may have been Fat Man Scoop, an alias for Sanders.

Burt was behind the wheel, and Wilson was in the seat behind him. According to the surviving passengers, the four victims had gone out to eat, shopped in Uptown and had pulled into the alley.

They were in the car when two men approached and fired 33 shots at them.