Minnesota Women Leave Prison due to Changes in Felony Murder Law

Two women convicted in connection with a 2017 home invasion murder were released from prison last week because of a change in state law. Megan Cater, 25, and Briana Martinson, 27, are the first people to be released from custody after legislators overhauled Minnesota’s felony murder statute. While the two admitted taking part in the April 2017 burglary of Corey Elder’s apartment, a judge found that they did not share responsibility for his murder.

Elder, who was 19 years old at the time, was at home in Suburban Minneapolis when Cater and Martinson showed up at his apartment. Recognizing them as acquaintances and past drug customers, Elder opened the door. Waiting in the hallway were Tarrance Murphy and Maurice Verser, who rushed in behind them. As the men beat and pistol whipped Elder, Cater and Martinson ransacked the apartment in search of drugs. Verser eventually used the pistol to shoot and kill Elder.

Verser is serving a 32-year sentence for second-degree intentional murder and assault. Murphy received a 20-year sentence. Cater and Martinson were not in the bedroom with Verser when he fired the fatal shot. But in a deal with prosecutors, the women pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder, and were sentenced to 13.5 years each. 

In 2023, lawmakers in the DFL (Democratic party) led Minnesota Legislature put new restrictions around the state’s felony murder statute. Under the old law, prosecutors could charge a person with aiding and abetting murder during the commission of an underlying felony no matter their role in that felony. House File 1162 limited felony murder prosecutions to people who caused the victim’s death, intended to cause it, or were major participants in the underlying crime. Legislators made the changes to the statue retroactive, which allowed Cater and Martinson to petition the court to vacate their murder convictions.

Last week, Martinson and Cater were resentenced to 57 and 69 months respectively for burglary with a firearm. Because they’d already served that time, the two were released from prison.

Mary Moriarty, a longtime public defender who was elected Hennepin County Attorney in 2022, supports the change. “It is not fair when two people get charged with murder when one of them pulled the trigger and the other one had no idea this was going to happen,” Moriarty said. “Certainly both people have to be held accountable, but they should be held accountable for what they actually do.”

Mitchell-Hamline law professor Bradford Colbert, who’s also a part-time public defender, represented Martinson and said the court held his client accountable for her part in the crime and nothing more. “Ms. Martinson feels awful about what happened,” Colbert said. “But justice isn’t necessarily the longest prison sentence imaginable. And justice has to align with culpability, and what Ms. Martinson was involved in was a burglary. And she didn’t contemplate or intend for anyone to be killed.” 

Cater’s attorney and University of Minnesota law professor JaneAnne Murray said that Minnesota’s old felony murder law has resulted in sentences for too many defendants that are disproportionate to their culpability. “Our client was only 19 at the time of her offense, and she did not intend or participate in a murder,” Murray stated. “It is right and just that she, and many similarly-situated to her, get punished for what they did, and not for the conduct of others.”