Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges has criticized the early release of two women involved in a fatal home invasion in 2017 following the introduction of changes to Minnesota’s felony murder laws.
Megan Cater, now 25, of Lakeville, and Briana Martinson, now 27, of Prior Lake, became the first people released from prison under Minnesota’s new law, which was passed by the DFL-led Legislature in 2023.
The changes say that only those who directly commit the murder, directly aid a person in its commission, or act with reckless disregard for human life can be charged with murder or aiding and abetting murder.
Under the former law, prosecutors could bring murder charges against all accomplices to a felony-level crime that results in a murder, regardless of if the accomplice had any knowledge such violence might take place.
Cater and Martinson planned the burglary of a Bloomington apartment that was the residence of Corey Elder, a 19-year-old from whom they had previously bought drugs.