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By Patrick Tepoorten
Story filed at 7:15 p.m., Feb. 14, 2008
After over five hours of deliberation, the jury in the Craig
Fleming murder trial returned "not guilty" verdicts on three of four charges. To
the matter of first degree premeditated homicide, an indictment for which
the County Attorney's office sought soon after the killing of Martin Carlson,
25, of Center City, the verdict was "not guilty."
Fleming was convicted of second degree intentional homicide,
but not convicted of the two assault charges for actions taken against Jason
Slattengren and Tory Mogensen.
Prosecutor Fred Fink, who said he does not make a practice of
commenting on jury decisions, responded to the verdict by saying, "We did our
job, they did their's. It is what it is."
Defense attorney Gregory J. Rebeau did not comment on the
verdict, and sister of the accused Denise Fleming was not available for
comment.
For Lorri Ann Miller, grandmother of Carlson's 10-year-old son
Mattias, the verdict was shocking. "I'm speechless," she said. "I can't believe
it."
Fleming has been remanded to the custody of the Chisago County
Sheriff's Office and will remain so until his sentencing hearing, scheduled for
April 22, at 8:30 a.m. According to state statute, Fleming faces up to 40 years
in prison.
For background on the murder of Martin Carlson and complete
coverage of Craig Fleming's trial, see the "Fleming on trial" page at the Post
Review Web site.
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