Davenport seeks reduced sentence in 2017 Duluth murder case

Deandre Davenport is back before the courts in the 2017 East Hillside killing of University of Minnesota Duluth student William Grahek, asking for a reduced sentence as Minnesota’s felony-murder rules continue to reshape the case.

The filing matters because Davenport is not just asking for a second look at punishment. He is trying to take advantage of the 2023 Felony Murder Reform Act, which narrowed how Minnesota treats aided-and-abetted felony murder. Under the current framework, first-degree murder requires proof that a defendant intended to cause death. Second-degree murder requires proof that the person was a major participant in the underlying felony and acted with extreme indifference to human life. Davenport and co-defendant Noah King are now arguing he was not present at the scene, a claim aimed at reducing his culpability under the newer law.

Grahek was 22 when he was killed on Feb. 14, 2017, during a burglary at 510 E. 11th St. in Duluth’s East Hillside neighborhood. He was a junior at UMD, a detail that has kept the case especially vivid in Duluth and throughout St. Louis County. Trial testimony later summarized in court reporting said Davenport fired the two shots that killed Grahek after the group entered the home intending to steal drugs and cash. King carried a wrench, while the other two men carried guns.

The legal fight has already been through multiple turns. The Minnesota Supreme Court on May 17, 2023 affirmed King’s conviction under the old aiding-and-abetting felony-murder theory, saying the evidence was sufficient to show Grahek’s death was a reasonably foreseeable result of an armed burglary that King helped plan. After the reform law took effect, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in 2025 that the new aiding-and-abetting felony-murder law is constitutional, opening the door to retroactive petitions. King, who was 27 at resentencing, had his life sentence vacated and received a new 32½-year sentence from Judge Leslie Beiers on March 31, 2026.

That resentencing has deepened the pain for Grahek’s family. Heidi Errickson-Grahek called the outcome, “This is not justice.” Devin Grahek said he has struggled with PTSD, insomnia and depression since the killing. St. Louis County Deputy Attorney Jon Holets has said prosecutors were deeply frustrated by where the cases were headed.

The broader stakes reach beyond one courtroom. A Minnesota House report said one-third of people incarcerated for murder in the state were convicted under the aiding-and-abetting felony-murder doctrine, the same legal theory that powered the original Grahek case. For Davenport, the issue now is whether the revised law changes his sentence in a meaningful way. For Duluth, it means a murder that began nearly nine years ago is still forcing judges to remeasure responsibility, punishment and finality in a case the community has never stopped remembering.