Sander sentenced for involvement in fatal shooting

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

REDWOOD FALLS -- A St. Cloud man was sentenced to serve time in state prison for his involvement in a 2002 shooting near Morton.

Jesse Ross Sander, 20, began a 110-month term at the state prison in St. Cloud late last week, said Redwood County officials.

Sander pleaded guilty to aiding an offender on April 14, one week before he was scheduled to stand trial in Mankato for his alleged involvement in the shooting death of Frank Irving Parker II, 23, of Minneapolis, outside a house party on the Lower Sioux Indian Community in June 2002.

Sander was originally indicted on first-degree murder, second-degree murder and two counts of a crime committed for the benefit of a gang by a Redwood County grand jury in October 2003.

The court dismissed all of those counts at the request of Redwood County Attorney Michelle Dietrich at Sander's sentencing on April 21.

Redwood County District Judge David Peterson said that Sander will serve the 110-month sentence at the same time as an 86-month term he is currently serving for a second-degree assault charge. He will receive credit for jail time served and will get credit for good behavior, court records indicate.

Parker, a captain in the Native Mob gang, was found dead on the lawn of the house during the early morning of June 9, 2002. Witnesses later came forward and identified four people, including Sander, who were said to have been inside a marron GMC Yukon Denali that pulled up to the house before Parker was shot and killed. Those witnesses had identified Jesse Sander as a passenger in the Denali, court documents said.

Jesse Sander is the last of the four defendants who were charged in connection with Parker's death. Only two, including Jesse Sander, were indicted.

His older brother, Christopher Richard Sander, 25, was acquitted of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree murder for the benefit of a gang after a jury trial in March of 2003.

The Sanders' cousins, Dennis William Pendleton, Jr., 24, and Robin Todd Pendleton, Jr., 17, were also charged in connection with Parker's death. Dennis Pendleton is still serving a 60-month prison sentence outside Minnesota .Robin Pendleton was sentenced to life in prison in March of 2004 after he was convicted on all four counts of the indictment.