Jury finds man guilty of murder in fatal shooting over $20

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A Hennepin County jury found a man guilty Thursday after a dispute in September over $20 led to a fatal shooting.

Kenneth Joel McKinnis, 39, was convicted of second-degree murder for fatally shooting 27-year-old Curtis Johnson on Sept. 26 near a homeless encampment at the intersection of 16th Avenue South near East 24th Street.

The criminal complaint states that Minneapolis police officers found Johnson with a single gunshot wound to his chest. He later died at the hospital.

Investigators then got surveillance footage that showed a black pick-up truck, later found to be stolen, arriving at the encampment that night. The footage reportedly showed a man wearing red entering Johnson's tent right before a gunshot was heard. The man in red then ran back into the truck and left the scene.

The truck was later found abandoned in the parking lot of a store the next day. More surveillance footage was reviewed by investigators, which revealed two of the occupants inside the truck. Police then arrested one of them, who identified McKinnis as the man in red who went to Johnson's tent before running back to the truck. The occupant also added that he saw McKinnis take a gun from the backseat of the truck and put it in his waistband when he was dropped off at home.

The criminal complaint also states that multiple witnesses at the encampment told officers that the victim owed a man known as "K.O.", later identified as McKinnis, $20 and that the two got into an argument over the supposed debt. A witness also added that this argument happened the day before the shooting and that it "turned physical" when the victim didn't have the money.

Another witness also told police he saw "K.O." walking toward Johnson's tent with a gun in his waistband the day of the shooting.

McKinnis is set to be sentenced on the morning of Aug. 5.