Man sentenced in murder involving man who fled to Wisconsin

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MINOT, N.D. (AP) — A Minot man convicted in the shooting death of another man in January was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison.

Michael Dennis II, 25, pleaded guilty last month to accomplice to murder in the death of 29-year-old Dominick Stephens and attempted murder of 28-year-old Patrick Bost.

Stephens was shot twice in the back as he was driving a car through northwest Minot, fleeing a vehicle from which Dennis and co-defendant Donald Lee Cooper Jr., 27, were allegedly firing shots, the Minot Daily News reported. Bost, a passenger in Stephens’ vehicle, was not injured.

Cooper fled to Milwaukee after the shooting and was apprehended there on April 3. Authorities said he crashed his vehicle into another car while he was fleeing law enforcement and killed two people in the other car. He is being held in a Milwaukee jail on charges of reckless homicide and related charges in Wisconsin state court.

No date has been scheduled for Cooper’s return to North Dakota to face charges of accomplice to murder, attempted murder, reckless endangerment and terrorizing.

Marcus Lee, 22, was the driver of the vehicle that was chasing Stephens and Bost. Lee pleaded guilty to accomplice to murder and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.