{"id":52847,"date":"2026-09-24T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=52847"},"modified":"2026-09-24T05:19:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:19:22","slug":"fargo-man-agrees-to-plea-in-2020-drive-by-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/fargo-man-agrees-to-plea-in-2020-drive-by-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"Fargo Man Agrees to Plea in 2020 Drive-By Killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fargo Man Agrees to Plea in 2020 Drive-By Killing<\/h2>\n

Fargo, North Dakota<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 Jesse James Burnett has agreed to plead guilty to three federal charges.<\/p>\n

The charges are tied to Santino Marial\u2019s 2020 death and a later witness tampering conspiracy.<\/p>\n

A plea agreement was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota.<\/p>\n

The agreement says Burnett will plead guilty to conspiracy to tamper with a witness.<\/p>\n

He will also plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana.<\/p>\n

The third count involves using a firearm during a drug trafficking crime resulting in Marial\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Marial was killed during a drive-by shooting in Fargo on August 28, 2020.<\/p>\n

Burnett was arrested in 2022 after a two-year investigation into the shooting.<\/p>\n

Witness Assault Detailed in Agreement<\/h2>\n

Court records say Burnett received discovery materials from the state and federal investigation.<\/p>\n

The materials involved Marial\u2019s death and the related drug trafficking investigation.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say those materials were shared among people involved in the conspiracy.<\/p>\n

The group planned to assault a witness who had implicated Burnett, according to the agreement.<\/p>\n

Daniel Saydee Cisse assaulted the witness inside the Cass County Jail on January 14, 2023.<\/p>\n

The agreement says Cisse punched, kicked and stabbed the witness with a pencil.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said the assault was meant to stop the witness from cooperating or testifying.<\/p>\n

Cisse is serving an 11-year federal sentence for his role in that conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Shaquiel Mendez was convicted at trial in December 2024 for his role in the same conspiracy.<\/p>\n

The agreement also mentions Zoepeawon Moore, who is known as \u201cChief Executive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore is separately charged in the related federal drug case.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors Recommend 40-Year Term<\/h2>\n

Federal prosecutors will recommend a 480-month sentence on the count tied to Marial\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

That equals 40 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n

They will also recommend 360 months for the witness tampering conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors will recommend 240 months for the drug trafficking conspiracy.<\/p>\n

The government will recommend that all three sentences run at the same time.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say the concurrent recommendation would total 40 years.<\/p>\n

The firearm count tied to Marial\u2019s death carries a possible maximum sentence of life in prison.<\/p>\n

Judge Must Approve Agreement<\/h2>\n

A judge must still decide whether to accept the plea agreement.<\/p>\n

Burnett also agrees to waive his right to a trial under the proposed agreement.<\/p>\n

He would also waive most rights to appeal his conviction or sentence.<\/p>\n

The case remains pending in federal court.<\/p>\n

More information is available from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of North Dakota<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Federal court information is also available from the U.S. District Court for North Dakota<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Charges are accusations. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.<\/p>\n

I’m Adrian Cole reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 TRF News. All rights reserved.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Fargo<\/a>
Fargo Man Agrees to Plea in 2020 Drive-By Killing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesse James Burnett agreed to plead guilty in a Fargo killing case, with prosecutors recommending concurrent sentences totaling 40 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"","timeOption":"","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":""},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[764,25593,15819,2932,16159,25591,25594,15193,25592,12004],"class_list":["post-52847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-cass-county-jail","tag-fargo-drive-by-shooting","tag-fargo-murder-case","tag-fargo-nd","tag-federal-plea-agreement","tag-jesse-james-burnett","tag-marijuana-conspiracy","tag-north-dakota-federal-court","tag-santino-marial","tag-witness-tampering","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52847"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55723,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52847\/revisions\/55723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}