Charges have been dismissed against a Minneapolis man who had been accused of playing a role in a kidnapping and robbery during a two-day incident that also involved a fatal overdose of a man at George Floyd Square whose body prosecutors said was lit on fire.
Kidnapping case against Minneapolis man dismissed amid 'inconsistencies'
Defense attorney said the supposed victim made up the story to avoid being implicated in a fatal overdose.
October 11, 2022 at 11:23PM
The defense attorney for Desmond D. Graham, 32, said numerous felony counts were dropped Monday because the supposed target of abduction in downtown Minneapolis lied about being a victim over a two-day span in March.
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office explained in a filing Monday in District Court that it dismissed all charges against Graham in connection with the case "based upon additional investigation and information received since the time of charging."
County Attorney's Office spokesman Maxwell Page declined to elaborate other than to say no other suspects have been charged in relation to the incident that left 45-year-old Larry Mosby dead from an apparent fentanyl overdose in the abandoned gas station at 38th Street and S. Chicago Avenue, near where George Floyd was murdered in May 2020 by a Minneapolis police officer.
Graham was arrested on March 29, but remains jailed despite the case being dropped because he is wanted in connection with a misdemeanor case in Anoka County, according to jail records.
Prosecutors had said a 35-year-old man was carjacked in downtown Minneapolis by three men, beaten and forced to withdraw $3,000 from his bank account while being held captive for many hours.
While the man was detained, one of his assailants, Mosby, died of an apparent overdose and then was set ablaze by Graham inside the former gas station, according to the charges.
"The 'victim' ... was a liar," defense attorney Bryan Leary wrote in an email to the Star Tribune. The man, from Minnetonka, supplied the drugs to Mosby that killed him, "and there is no indication" that the man was a hostage, Leary added.
In summary, Leary said, "there were lots of inconsistencies" in the man's account.
The defense attorney said the man "made up the kidnapping story to avoid being implicated in the overdose death of Mosby," Leary said.
The man was interviewed for a second time by the FBI in April, Leary continued, and "admitted that, no, he wasn't carjacked [and] that he'd been drinking with Graham downtown earlier in the evening."
Page said Tuesday the man who reported being kidnapped has not been charged with a crime, and the spokesman declined to say whether charges were being considered.
Meanwhile, more than seven months later, the Medical Examiner's Office has not disclosed an official cause and manner for Mosby's death.
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