No jail for Duluth, MN convicted felon who turned in gun

Steven Cooper, 32, was sentenced Monday in St. Louis County District Court to five years of supervised probation. Judge Dale Harris chose not to follow minimum sentencing guidelines that call for prison terms.

Cooper was charged with felony possession of a firearm by the St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office in July 2022, after he told his probation officer that he had found a gun and some ammunition among things in a vehicle left by his brother, who had recently died. . Cooper wrapped the gun in a sweatshirt and stored it in a secure location inside his apartment building before calling his probation officer, who notified police.

After Cooper was charged, both the Duluth NAACP and the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus asked the county to drop the charges. Duluth NAACP President Classie Dudley said then that the charge sent a message that unregistered guns and guns in the possession of people who shouldn’t have them should not be turned in.

At a 2023 NAACP news conference, Cooper said he was “honest from the beginning. “If I do the right thing, I’m being punished.”

Cooper pleaded guilty last fall in hopes of seeking parole. He later withdrew it because lawyers said they knew his previous conviction would not allow for such a sentence. Cooper shot two gas station employees in 2006, when he was 15 and was convicted of attempted murder. He was paroled after serving 13 and a half years.

On Monday, Harris cited case law that he said allowed for a downward departure from sentencing guidelines, and Cooper again pleaded guilty.

“I know this has been a long and winding road, but I believe it is a fair and equitable outcome,” Harris told Cooper.