A Hennepin County judge has ruled that it was valid for Robbinsdale police to stop and search the vehicle of Myon Burrell before arresting the Minneapolis man whose life sentence for murder in a previous case was commuted in 2020.
Judge rules that traffic stop, search of Myon Burrell by police was valid
Judge Peter Cahill wrote there was probable cause supporting the traffic stop and search of the vehicle driven by Burrell, whose life sentence for murder was recently commuted.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
May 3, 2024 at 9:18PM
Burrell, 38, was charged in September with fifth-degree drug possession and illegal weapon possession following the traffic stop by officer Andrew Nordby. At the time, Nordby said Burrell was driving erratically on 42nd Avenue N. and that a billow of marijuana smoke emanated from his SUV.
Burrell’s attorneys filed a motion in October to suppress evidence seized in the stop, saying there was no probable cause to pull him over or to have his car searched, which led to the discovery of the contraband.
In the motion by defense attorneys Paul Applebaum and Nico Ratkowski, they said the police request for Burrell to get out of his vehicle was “based on nothing more than an imaginary cloud of smoke that allegedly came from inside the vehicle.” The motion also cited a 2023 Minnesota Supreme Court case ruling that the smell of marijuana alone does not justify a search.
Burrell argued in court in February that his charges should be dropped.
District Judge Peter Cahill, who denied the motion to suppress evidence, wrote in an order that Nordby’s search of the vehicle was valid. There was probable cause to pull Burrell over, the judge wrote, and squad car footage shows the vehicle committing moving violations.
Cahill cited Nordby’s observation of “green leafy debris in plain view” inside the vehicle, and the smell of marijuana, as reasons to search the vehicle for a potential DWI case.
Burrell’s life sentence was commuted by the Minnesota Board of Pardons after he served 18 years in prison, but he’s prohibited from possessing firearms because of the felony murder conviction on his record. As a teen, Burrell was charged and convicted of the 2002 killing of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards, who was struck by a stray bullet in Minneapolis. Burrell has always maintained his innocence.
According to Cahill, the parties are scheduled to next appear for an omnibus hearing on May 16.
Star Tribune staff writer Kim Hyatt contributed to this story.
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