Sept. 30, 2003: 5 charged in fatal shooting of 5-year-old Duluth boy

Authorities charged four young adults and a juvenile Monday with second-degree murder in the shooting death of a 5-year-old boy during an attempted robbery last week at a downtown Duluth apartment.

Eighteen-year-olds Gary W. LaQuier, Abigail M. Fleissner and Sterling T.W. Knox are accused along with Theresa R. Urrutia, 22, and an unidentified 15-year-old of participating in a botched robbery Wednesday in which 5-year-old Marcus Johnson was shot in the head as he slept.

Criminal complaints filed Monday allege that the suspects were trying to rob Clifford Brown, boyfriend of the victim's mother, Joanie Lund, because they knew he had recently received a cash settlement from his son's death.

The suspects also believed Brown might have drugs they could take from him, police said.

According to the documents:

- Lund's niece, Courtney Saul, told Urrutia that Brown had come into at least $35,000, and Urrutia by her own admission said:
"Good; we will go rob him." But Saul denied Urrutia's claim that the two of them planned the robbery and recruited the others.

- Security videotape from the Gander Mountain store in Duluth shows Urrutia buying a box of .41-caliber ammunition on the day before the crime.

- The Ruger's serial number was partially obliterated, a violation of federal law that suggests another possible federal
violation: receiving or trafficking in a stolen handgun. Duluth Police Lt. Robert Brasel said the revolver had a "single action,"
meaning its hammer must be cocked in order for the gun to be fired.
He said that fact shows investigators that the shooter was at least prepared to fire the gun when it went off.

- After LaQuier's mother, Donna Amperan, learned of the killing, she directed a relative, William LaQuier, to get rid of the remaining .41-caliber ammunition, but police intercepted him as he walked out the door of the house.

Shooting described

- Brown told police he answered their door at 4:30 a.m. and saw a man standing in the doorway, holding a pistol with two outstretched hands, pointing it at his face. The man's face was covered by a bandana.

The man swore at him, but before he could say anything else, Brown stepped out of the line of fire, he said, and struggled to close the door, while others he couldn't see pushed from the other side. During the struggle, the gun fired and the would-be intruders fled. Brown then discovered that the bullet had struck Marcus in the head as he lay on a fold-out bed near the door.

- Defendant Fleissner, who is LaQuier's girlfriend, told police that LaQuier wanted to rob Brown so that the couple "could have a place of their own." Her role was to drive the getaway car.

All defendants were in custody Monday except Knox, for whom police have searched since Thursday, when one of the jailed suspects implicated him.

The other three adult defendants appeared at an arraignment dressed in orange jail uniforms, their legs chained loosely together and their wrists shackled to chains around their waists.
Somber family members watched. District Judge Heather Sweetland set bail at $400,000 for Laquier and $200,000 for the others, whom prosecutor Mark Rubin described as accomplices.

In asking for high bail, Rubin told the judge that his office may ask a grand jury for first-degree murder indictments against the defendants. Under Minnesota law, a person can be guilty of first-degree murder for killing someone while committing another felony, even if the killing was unintentional.

15-year-old arraigned