Former Cloquet man convicted of murder of student

A one-time Cloquet resident was convicted of second-degree intentional murder last week in Minneapolis.

Cody Logan Fohrenkam, 30, was found guilty Thursday, Jan. 26, of shooting and killing 15-year-old Deshaun Hill Jr., a student and athlete at Minneapolis North Community High School. The shooting occurred after the two happened to pass each other on the sidewalk - Hill wearing a walking boot on one foot, Fohrenkam searching for the person who punched him four times and stole his phone at a convenience store that morning.

Jurors at the Hennepin County Government Center deliberated about an hour before reaching a verdict.

According to a story by Minnesota Public Radio's Matt Sepic, assistant Hennepin County attorney Dan Allard said Fohrenkam became angrier as the hours passed that day and confronted people while looking for his phone.

Allard said after passing Hill, Fohrenkam pulled a gun from his backpack and fired it three times, striking Hill once in the back of his head as the teen was walking to a bus stop.

"An innocent young man had the terrible misfortune of running across an angry, angry man who couldn't tolerate any more insults, and his response was to shoot him in the head and kill him," Allard said in his closing arguments.

Evidence put Fohrenkam at the scene, wearing a pair of red pants spotted by witnesses and security cameras that day, according to a story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Sentencing is set for Feb. 28.

Carlton County residents may have recognized Fohrenkam's name from a 2013 case, when Fohrenkam was 21. He and an accomplice stopped two teenage boys who were walking down Doddridge Avenue in Cloquet. The two 21-year-olds got out of a car and demanded the then 13- and 14-year-old boys give them their tennis shoes and the contents of their pockets, which turned out to be a cell phone and their wallets. Fohrenkam was convicted of felony simple robbery in that case, and the shoes were eventually returned to their owners.

Additionally, Fohrenkam was convicted in 2012 for second-degree arson in Carlton County for setting a fire on the back porch of a residence on the 2300 block of Kelly Avenue while the residents were in the home.

A felony charge of fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance (marijuana) and two misdemeanor charges against Fohrenkam were dismissed by the Carlton County attorney's office in August of 2018 after a former Cloquet police officer, Scott Beckman, was accused of lying under oath. It was one of 18 cases dismissed that August in which Beckman would have been a witness.

Still, Fohrenkam's fairly lengthy criminal history includes drug possession, another simple robbery, driving and weapons violations in Hennepin, St. Louis and Carlton counties dating back to 2010.

Fohrenkam was already in the Carlton County jail when the second-degree murder charges were filed in Hennepin County. He was arrested by Fond du Lac police on Feb. 15 for possession of marijuana, trespassing and probation violation - misdemeanor charges that are set for a pretrial hearing here on Feb. 6, but may be dropped after his conviction last week.

After his transfer to Minneapolis last year, Fohrenkam's mother told a Twin Cities television station that her son had for months been "homeless, staying with people - sometimes in Minneapolis, sometimes with her on the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation," the station reported.

Read the MPR News story at mprnews.org