Minneapolis woman convicted in fatal shooting

A 29-year-old Minneapolis woman will be sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole after being convicted in a fatal shooting last March.

A jury convicted Maureen Ndidiamaka Onyelobi Wednesday of aiding and abetting first-degree premeditated murder in the March 8 shooting of Anthony Fairbanks, 23, of Minneapolis. Police found Fairbanks, who had been shot in the head, dead in a snowbank on the 2700 block of Longfellow Avenue S.

According to the criminal complaint and trial testimony, Fairbanks was heard talking outside on his phone just before 10 p.m. March 8, telling someone on the other end that he was coming alone. A witness then heard gunshots and saw a van drive away.

Fairbanks' cellphone records led police to Onyelobi, who had provided Fairbanks with heroin. She was arrested March 11 on a drug charge. While in custody, investigators found a key in her pocket that led them to a Plymouth storage unit and a safe that contained a handgun that they believed was used to kill Fairbanks; records also indicated she owned a van that matched the description of the one leaving the murder scene.

Onyelobi's boyfriend, Maurice Wilson, who was indicted along with Onyelobi in June, remains in federal custody on drug charges; no date has been set for his murder trial.

KELLY SMITH