Guilty plea in friend shooting

A Cloquet area man who accidentally shot his friend almost a year ago pleaded guilty last week to second-degree manslaughter.

Joseph James Fohrenkam, 19, pleaded guilty in Duluth Sixth District Court Monday, Nov. 22, to the manslaughter charge. The maximum imprisonment for second-degree manslaughter is 10 years, with a minimum of 36 months. Fohrenkam signed off on the plea knowing that the prosecution is seeking an aggravated sentence of 84 months, or seven years. A charge of third-degree murder — with a maximum sentence of 25 years — will be dismissed in return for the plea.

According to the criminal complaint, Joseph Fohrenkam was drinking with four other young men, all of them friends, on Dec. 27 last year in a parked truck outside a home on the 3600 block of Giiniw Road, on the Fond du Lac Reservation in St. Louis County. According to three witnesses, they were just drinking and talking, not arguing. Fohrenkam allegedly had a pistol, which he was “showing off” and “waving around.” At least two of the witnesses said they thought Fohrenkam may have hit his arm on the center console when he was handling it, causing the pistol to discharge. Sixteen-year-old Joseph James Peterson was seated in the middle of the back seat. The bullet hit him below his left eye and killed him.

Joseph Fohrenkam fled the area with his mother, Little Fawn Fohrenkam after the shooting. They were discovered two weeks later in an apartment in Mahnomen, Minnesota. They had both shaved their heads to alter their appearance after fleeing. Little Fawn told police she drove her son away from the scene to protect him and hid him from law enforcement. She received a sentence of one year and a day in October, but it was stayed for three years and instead she was placed on supervised probation.

Judge Eric Hylden set the sentencing date for Joseph Fohrenkam for Feb. 28 in Duluth Sixth District Court. Fohrenkam has been in jail since his arrest in January.