FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Mar. 16, 2017
Contact: Chuck Laszewski, Media Coordinator, 612-348-5580
Hennepin County District Court Judge Kathryn L. Quaintance sentenced Albert McIntosh to more than 38 years in prison and Michelle Koester to 32 years, for a night of robbery and burglary that left one man dead and at least a half-dozen more terrorized, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Thursday.
Last month, a Hennepin County Jury found McIntosh, 32, and Koester, 43, guilty of 11 out of 12 counts, including aiding and abetting first-degree robbery, aiding and abetting second-degree murder, aiding and abetting second-degree murder while committing a felony, aiding and abetting first-degree burglary and aiding and abetting first-degree burglary committed with a weapon.
Five victim impact statements were read in court in English by a Hennepin County Attorney's Office victim advocate for family members of 42-year-old Julio Mozo-Cuate. He was murdered on October 18, 2015 while sitting in his car in an alley behind his home.
His mother said “I don’t know how to explain the great pain that I feel.” His brother said “the murder of my brother hurts me profoundly; I feel a great loneliness… a terrible yearning to hug him again.” One of his daughters said Koester and McIntosh “took away the person who loved me unconditionally, took my everything away... I don’t think the pain will ever go away.”
His other daughter said “One day everyone was happy and then suddenly he [my father] was gone forever. He can’t see everything good I have done, from dancing to getting my first job.” His wife declared that McIntosh “violently took away my beloved husband’s life. He doesn’t realize all the harm he has caused. He destroyed me completely, my life, my hopes.”
McIntosh and Koester were each given credit for more than 500 days already served while awaiting trial. Both were ordered to pay restitution to Mozo-Cuate’s family in the amount of $15,499 and restitution to another victim in the amount of approximately $4,000.
The other accomplices, Alvin Bell, Isiah Harper and Shannon Haiden, have already pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
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Look for more news on the Hennepin County Attorney's Offices website at www.hennepinattorney.org/news/news.
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