AG SAYS BAND MEMBER WRONGFULLY CONVICTED OF MURDER NEARLY 25 YEARS AGO
By Vivian LaMoore, Inaajimowin Editor
Mille Lacs Band member Brian Pippitt has been serving a life sentence in prison after he was found guilty by jury trial in 2001 for the murder of 84-year-old Evelyn Malin of McGregor. Pippitt has always maintained his innocence and may soon have his conviction vacated thanks to the recommendation of the newly created Conviction Review Unit of the Minnesota Attorney General’s office.
Pippitt was found guilty of first-degree murder of Malin on Feb. 2, 2001, 23 years ago. Malin was a 50-year operator of the Dollar Lake Store in McGregor. She lived in the back of the store. On the morning of Feb. 25, 1998, sheriff’s deputies investigating a report of broken windows in the store discovered her dead. An autopsy report indicated she was killed from trauma as a result of a severe beating. At that time, locals reported that Malin had been robbed at least six times over the years and “… the last time she was beaten so badly that she never fully recovered …”
Throughout his two decades in prison, Pippitt has maintained his innocence. Centurion Ministries in partnership with the Great North Innocence Project (GNIP) announced earlier in June that they have filed a petition for post-conviction relief on behalf of their client Brian K. Pippitt on the grounds of his actual innocence of the murder for which he was convicted. The Minnesota CRU recently completed a two-year investigation into Mr. Pippitt’s conviction. After reviewing thousands of pages of materials and interviewing more than 25 fact and expert witnesses, the CRU recommended Mr. Pippitt be granted post-conviction relief based on his actual innocence. The Aitkin County Attorney’s Office has 20 days to respond to the filing.
Jim Cousins, attorney at Centurion said, “Centurion has been investigating Mr. Pippitt’s case for years. Through that investigation, which included witness interviews, document reviews and expert forensic analysis, we determined that Brian Pippitt is completely innocent of the murder of Evelyn Malin. He was not involved in that crime whatsoever. Everyone who has investigated this case in a responsible and detailed manner has reached the same conclusion, including the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office which conducted an extraordinary and exhaustive investigation, the Great North Innocence Project, and a law school clinic class at Mitchell Hamline Law School.”
On June 6, 2024, after an extensive independent investigation by CRU, the Minnesota Attorney General’s office recommended Pippitt’s conviction be vacated and the charges against him dismissed. A petition was filed in Atkin County Court by Pippitt for post-conviction release, in which he asked that his conviction be vacated and the charges against him dismissed. The petition is available by searching Court File Number 01-K4-99-000325 at Minnesota Court Records Online.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said his office determined Pippitt’s case had merit. The CRU then conducted a lengthy, careful, objective review of the case, engaged outside experts, and sought and incorporated diverse opinions. “Our goal is to ensure that no innocent person is serving time in a Minnesota prison for a crime they did not commit,” Ellison said. “No person or community is safer and justice is not served, when an innocent person is convicted and imprisoned. The only person that is served by a wrongful conviction is the perpetrator who committed the crime.”
The petition states that though decades have passed since Pippitt’s wrongful conviction, it is never too late to correct an injustice. Material never before presented to any court establishes Pippitt’s complete innocence in the 1998 murder of Evelyn Malin. Pippitt’s conviction was secured through perjured testimony describing events that simply could not have happened, in light of what is now known.
EVENTS OF THE CASE
On the night of February 24, 1998, 84-year-old Evelyn Malin was beaten and strangled to death in her home/store in McGregor. Her home was part “Dollar Lake Store” and part residence, where she lived alone. Her daughter Norma Horner, and her boyfriend, Gerald Horsman, arrived at the store the next morning at their usual time of 8:30 a.m. and knocked on the door. When her mother did not answer, they checked the back and front doors which were both locked from the inside and checked all of the windows. With still no answer, they called 911.
Deputy John Drahota, Deputy Mark Fredin, and Sgt. Scott Turner of the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office arrived on the scene. (Scott Turner, was later appointed to Sheriff in 2005 and served until 2019.) Officers kicked the backdoor open. As the officers made their way through the building, they found Malin’s body in her bedroom. Initially, they did not discover her as she was next to her bed covered by her overturned mattress and partially hidden among clothes, blankets, bedcovers, and papers. She had been murdered in her bed. Her glasses were on the dresser and she had removed her hearing aids for the night. Her bedroom was in disarray and it appeared the assailant had searched the room as numerous items were scattered, overturned, and disrupted.
Unlike Malin’s clearly ransacked bedroom, the area of the building that housed the convenience store was untouched, even though that is where the cash register (where she kept cash) and a jar of change were located.
Investigators soon developed a theory based on rumor that four or five men were together and one of them entered the location after hours through a basement window, went upstairs and then opened the front door to let the other four participants into the store and home residence where they murdered Malin, stole beer and cigarettes, then fled through the front door.
The State’s theory is utterly implausible, given that there is absolutely no forensic trace to support such a theory. Moreover, the front and back doors were locked with deadbolt locks operable only with keys — a fact that police tried desperately to obscure because it was wholly inconsistent with their crime theory that the assailants had exited through the front door. Finally, Horsman, who was responsible for the inventory in the store, confirmed that no beer or cigarettes were stolen from the store at all.
Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Bruce Beck led the investigation assisted by Deputy John Drahota, Sgt. Scott Turner, Deputy Mark Fredin, and Sgt. Roy Bruggman. The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) Special Agents Dave Bjerga, Gary Pederson, and Brad Barker also participated in the investigation.
Early leads were focused on a local named Terry Peet, who had just been released from prison and was allegedly witnessed near the store with a flashlight earlier that night. However, Peet died within a few months when his trailer burned and investigators abandoned that theory.
They then leaned towards a family dispute involving Malin’s grandson, Mark Malin, who according to court documents, allegedly had a bad temper, was prone to violence when “on something,” and asked to borrow money from his grandmother often. The theory grew that this time she refused to give him money and he retaliated. But investigators quickly dropped this theory as well.
Local rumors pointed to Brian Pippitt and his nephews Keith, Michael, Brandon, and Wesley Misquadace. Keith, Michael, and Brandon lived on the Sandy Lake Reservation about 15 miles north of the Dollar Lake Store. Wesley Misquadace lived about 60 miles away in Onamia.
Keith, Michael, and Brandon Misquadace all disclaimed any direct knowledge of the crime. Both Michael and Brandon recalled that, on the day and evening of the murder, they were at the Grand Casino Mille Lacs, where Michael Misquadace had two job interviews. They said that their uncle Brian Pippitt was with them. Throughout the history of this case, they never wavered on this point.
Brandon and Michael Misquadace were eventually cleared based on this alibi. The evidence and logic should also have cleared Brian Pippitt, who had the identical alibi. Not only did Brandon and Michael consistently corroborate his alibi, other witnesses did as well. In fact, Michael testified to Brian’s alibi at trial. Nevertheless, the County Attorney Brad Rhodes used the gambit of arguing that since Brian had not used his Grand Advantage Club card at the casino, he had not been there.
Investigators then focused on the next rumor which held that five people were driving around together on the afternoon and night of the murder. This group included Raymond Misquadace, 21; Keith Misquadace, 17; Donald Hill, 23; Neil King, 18; and Brian Pippitt, 34. However, locals often questioned this rumor stating these men would have had no reason to be together. These five never hung out together, and especially not as a group. In fact, Raymond Misquadace admits that he and Brian Pippitt did not like each other. Raymond further admits that he (Raymond) did not get along with Donald Hill either.
The whole framework of the investigation, built solely on unsupported, inconsistent innuendo and varying rumors, was concocted from nothing and remains baseless. The State’s entire theory of the attack on Malin is completely contradicted by the known facts.
BOTCHED INVESTIGATIONS, PLEA DEALS, AND TRIAL
Ultimately, based on fabricated and completely embellished versions of false testimony and coerced confessions, Raymond Misquadace pled guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to less than five years in prison according to court documents. His plea deal also resolved additional unrelated outstanding felony charges against him and included an agreement that he testify against the others. Donald Hill pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a less-than-five-year sentence that also resolved other unrelated felony charges. Neil King went to trial and received a judgment of acquittal. Keith Misquadace entered an Alford plea to manslaughter; he also resolved unrelated felony charges.
Pippitt pleaded not guilty and went to trial. He was found guilty by jury and has been serving a life sentence in a Minnesota correctional facility since February 2001 — more than 23 years.
The CRU presented evidence included in the court documents that said, “Raymond Misquadace now admits under oath that his story was fabricated with the help of the police and that he was not at the crime scene at all.”
Two unreliable witnesses provided testimony that directly linked Pippitt to the crime. Both witnesses provided incentivized testimony. One of the witnesses was a co-defendant who testified about Pippitt’s involvement in the burglary-murder in return for a favorable plea deal. The other was a jailhouse informant with a mental illness and a federal conviction for bank robbery who testified that Pippitt made admissions of guilt to him inside prison while awaiting trial. Months after Pippitt’s trial, the county attorney made a recommendation for leniency to a federal judge presiding over the informant’s sentencing hearing for his testimony in court which helped lead to Pippitt’s conviction.
However, the testimony that both witnesses provided at trial was unreliable and should have never been presented to the jury. Both witnesses have since recanted their testimony. This marks the first person the CRU has recommended for full exoneration. According to the press release, this recommendation is based on an extensive, independent investigation of the conviction that the CRU conducted. The report is 181 pages long: it contains 987 footnotes that cite approximately 250 source documents, and took core CRU staff more than 1,100 hours to complete.
During the CRU’s investigation into the credibility of the key witnesses’ recantations, the CRU discovered that the prosecutor’s theory of the case, including how the defendants allegedly entered and exited the building, was implausible and that key evidence tending to exonerate Pippitt was overlooked. For example, investigators determined that one of the accomplices entered Malin’s building through a small window leading into the basement. Crime scene experts have noted since, however, that given the forensic details left behind at the crime scene, no one entered through that window. Experts concluded that the scene was staged to make it appear as though the window was the entry point; investigators missed all the details suggesting that the crime scene was staged. In addition, no fingerprints, hair, or DNA were collected that matched Pippitt or any of the co-defendants. Finally, Pippitt had an alibi for the evening, which he provided to investigators days after the murder, and before he was considered a person of interest.
Furthermore, two alternative suspects who appeared to have motive, means, and opportunity to murder Evelyn Malin were never fully investigated and fully cleared of wrongdoing. Pippitt’s defense counsel failed to present either of the alternative suspects to the jury. Defense counsel also failed to highlight how the prosecutor’s theory of the case was incongruous with photographic evidence of the crime scene. Ultimately, Pippitt’s counsel was unprepared, under-experienced, and overburdened, preventing him from competently representing Pippitt at trial, which he has admitted.
In 2007, after the county attorney who prosecuted Pippitt left office, he was disbarred from the practice of law in Minnesota.
After an extensive investigation into these factors and more, the CRU has found insurmountable reasonable doubt about Pippitt’s conviction and the Attorney General’s Office has recommended that Pippitt’s conviction be vacated.
The Aitkin County Attorney was given 20 days to respond to the petition. Which was unavailable as of press time. Jim Meyer, attorney at GNIP, calculated the deadline for a response was June 25. They speculated about the attorney's potential response, hoping that he would either hand over jurisdiction of the matter to the Attorney General's Office or join their petition to vacate Brian Pippitt's conviction. However, the attorney had not responded publicly or to their inquiries, leaving them uncertain about his next steps.