Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says she is filing a petition to vacate the murder conviction of Brian Hooper Sr., who in 1998 was found guilty of killing 77-year-old Ann Prazniak in her Minneapolis apartment.
Brian Hooper Sr. was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and handed three concurrent life sentences. He petitioned six times to have his conviction vacated after multiple witness recanted their trial testimony. The state Supreme Court however upheld the conviction, arguing that he had filed the request years too late.
Moriarty said Tuesday that the state’s star witness had come forward on July 29 not only to renounce her testimony but to confess to killing Prazniak and hiding her body. The woman, who was 23 years old at the time, is serving a sentence for aggravated battery at a Georgia prison…