20 years for fatal street fight stabbing

Published 10:46 am Wednesday, January 5, 2011

VIRGINIA, Minn. — A man involved in a fatal street fight in northeastern Minnesota has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Robert Jacob Russell pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in an agreement with prosecutors in St. Louis County Tuesday, just a week before his trial was scheduled to begin.

The 40-year-old Russell was arrested in December 2009 after John Jamie Drumm was fatally stabbed during a street fight in Virginia.

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The Mesabi Daily News says Russell will have to serve a mandatory minimum of about 13 years in prison. A second person involved in the fight, Jared William Boshey, was sentenced to two years of probation on a third-degree assault charge.