State v. Leja

OPINION

ANDERSON, PAUL H., Justice.

Tina DeAnn Leja challenges her 210-month sentence for second-degree felony murder. The court of appeals concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it departed upward from the 150-month presumptive sentence established by the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines. Because we conclude that Leja did not commit the underlying offense of second-degree felony murder in a particularly serious way, we reverse and modify Leja’s sentence to the presumptive sentence of 150 months.

We begin by recognizing that the murder of Bobby Dee Holder was…