DULUTH – A Hibbing man has again been sentenced to life in prison, this time without the possibility for release, for the 2019 execution-style murder of another Iron Range man.
Hibbing man sentenced again to life in prison for 2019 murder
Deshon Israel Bonnell confessed, was sentenced, then appealed a 2019 ruling -- landing a more harsh sentence the second time around.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
June 19, 2024 at 4:53PM
Deshon Israel Bonnell, 23, was sentenced Tuesday after he was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder by a St. Louis County jury in late May. Bonnell led a blindfolded Joshua Robert Lavalley, 33, down the Mesabi Trail before twice shooting him in the face in January 2019.
In 2019, Bonnell pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the chance for release in 30 years. He later recanted his confession and made an appeal for a new trial. The Minnesota Supreme Court sent the case back to District Court.
Lavalley’s body was discovered by a snowmobiler on Jan. 6, 2019.
Anthony Howson, who was sentenced to 25 years as an accomplice in 2019, told authorities that the victim had attempted “unwanted sexual contact” with Bonnell’s girlfriend, Bailey Bodell French. French told authorities that she and Bonnell took Lavalley, of Aurora, out on the trail and that her boyfriend shot him. Howson stayed in the car.
French is currently at the correctional facility in Shakopee, where she isn’t expected to be released until 2044. Howson is in Stillwater.
Carlton County, just southwest of Duluth, hadn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Herbert Hoover in 1928. Trump snapped that nearly centurylong streak earlier this month.
