Jury Convicts Man Charged In 2020 Fatal Eagan Shooting

EAGAN, MN — A man was convicted of second-degree murder Monday in connection with a 2020 shooting in Eagan that killed Maurice Anderson, 29, of Minneapolis, Dakota County Attorney's Office said.

Robert Lee Baker III faces up to 40 years in prison and will be sentenced June 17, officials said.

Anderson died with 11 gunshot wounds, including one to his head, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office.

Around 9:00 p.m. on November 9, 2020, Eagan police officers responded to a report of shots fired at a hotel in Eagan, authorities said. One of the callers told police there was a man laying on the ground outside the hotel, and another caller said that a red car sped out of the area, according to officials.

Murder Charge Filed In Monday's Eagan Shooting

First responders tried to revive Anderson, but he died at the scene, authorities said.

Officers then found a car matching the description provided in the 911 call, according to police. They stopped the car, and the front seat passenger was identified as Baker, authorities said.

The driver of the car told police that she and Baker had gone to an Eagan hotel to meet up with her friend, officials said. After the friend got into the car, she told officers that two men with handguns got into the backseat and told them to drive, according to police. The woman said she pulled over in another hotel parking lot, and then the men robbed her and Baker, officials said.

According to authorities, the woman said that Baker got out of the car and she heard shooting. When the shooting had stopped, Baker got back into the car and the two dropped her friend off at the hotel before getting stopped by officers, the woman told police.

Baker said that after he and the woman were robbed, the two men ran away and he got out of the car and chased them with a gun, yelling at them to give him his stuff back, according to police.

Baker told police that both men who had robbed him pointed guns at him, and he fired his gun, hitting one of them, authorities said.

Officers didn't find a firearm near the Anderson, however, they found 16 discharged cartridge casings consistent with the .40 caliber handgun Baker admitted he used to shoot him with, according to officials.

Officers got a search warrant for the car and found a .40 caliber handgun, and a BB gun, which Baker said Anderson used to rob them, police said.