MN Supreme Court denies appeal

The Minnesota Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Sheldon Thompson to reverse his murder convictions and grant him a new trial.

Thompson, of Cloquet and Fond du Lac, was accused and found guilty of brutally killing his pregnant girlfriend, Jackie Defoe, their unborn child, and 20-month-old Kevin Lee Shabaiash Jr. in March 2020. He was found guilty by a Carlton County jury of eight counts of murder in June 2022. Five of the eight counts were first-degree murder charges, which came with an automatic sentence of life in prison.

Assistant state public defender Jessica Godes argued that the prosecutor committed misconduct by speculating in closing arguments about events occurring at the time of the killing absent any factual basis in the record.

In an 16-page opinion released Wednesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the decision made by the Carlton County Sixth District Court, ruling that the State had met its burden to show Thompson’s substantial rights “were not affected by any plain error alleged to have occurred in the prosecutor’s closing argument.” Thompson isn’t entitled to a new trial. The court exercises its supervisory powers to order a new trial only in “exceptional circumstances,” the ruling stated. The court also found that the defense had not shown that “speculative statements are a rampant form of prosecutorial misconduct.

Thompson is serving three consecutive life sentences.

~Jana Peterson