Brooklyn Park Man Convicted Of Killing Elderly Neighbor When He Was 14

MINNEAPOLIS — A Brooklyn Park man will serve 324 months — or 27 years — in prison after he was convicted of killing 68-year-old Susan Spiller, who lived next to him when he was 14, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office announced Friday.

Demetrius Wynne, now 21, was found guilty of intentional-second degree murder by a Hennepin County jury on March 29 after being certified to stand trial as an adult.

State prosecutors had asked the court for 367 months in prison, well above the presumptive sentence of 306 months under Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines. Wynne received 1,044 days of credit for prison time already served.

Ahead of Wynne's sentencing hearing, 21 different people submitted victim impact statements. The statements came from community members, friends and family, who talked about how Spiller positively influenced their lives.

According to the criminal complaint, Wynne and his family lived next door to Spiller on Dupont Avenue North. On the night of July 1, 2015, someone cut the screen to a rear window of Spiller’s home and removed it to gain entry into the house, prosecutors said.

A break in the case came in June 2019 when Wynne was booked and fingerprinted in a different case. A computer matched his booking fingerprints to prints taken from the rear window of Spiller’s home, according to the criminal complaint.

A DNA profile from a fingernail clipping from Spiller’s right hand was also connected to Wynne, prosecutors said.