One of the two gunmen in a mass shooting at a backyard punk show has now been certified as an adult, part of a multistep process in an existing plea agreement.
Cyrell Earl Boyd, 19, was 17 at the time of the Aug. 11, 2023, shooting that killed 35-year-old musician August Golden and injured six others at Nudieland, an LGBTQ-friendly venue in south Minneapolis.
Boyd reached a deal with prosecutors in the juvenile court system in which he pleaded guilty to a lower offense of aiding an offender after the fact and agreed to testify in the case of Dominic Burris, who was determined to have played a more significant role in the bloodshed.
The structure of Boyd’s plea deal put him on an eight-year corrective program, beginning with incarceration at the Red Wing Juvenile Correctional Facility. That phase of the process is now complete, and on Friday, he was certified as an adult in Hennepin County District Court.
Up next, Boyd is expected to plead guilty to charges of second-degree assault, aiding and abetting first-degree assault, and aiding and abetting second-degree assault. Under the terms of the plea agreement, he will receive a stayed 110-month prison sentence while he serves five years of supervised probation.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the unconventional plea deal was necessary to “develop an ironclad case” against Burris, who eventually pleaded guilty to counts of second-degree murder and first-degree assault and is now serving a 23-year prison sentence.
Boyd’s next court appearance is set for March 19.
