Former Cloquet man sentenced

A one-time Cloquet resident was sentenced Tuesday to 38 years in prison — the maximum sentence — for the murder of Minneapolis North student and athlete, Deshaun Hill Jr. in Minneapolis.

Cody Logan Fohrenkam, 30, was found guilty of second-degree homicide by a Hennepin County jury on Jan. 26. The shooting occurred after the two happened to pass each other on the sidewalk — Hill wearing a walking boot on one foot, Fohrenkam searching for the person who punched him four times and stole his phone at a store that morning. He shot Hill three times in the back of the head.

Carlton County residents may recognize Fohrenkam’s name from a 2013 case, when Fohrenkam was 21. He and an accomplice stopped two teenage boys who were walking down Doddridge Avenue in Cloquet. The two 21-year-olds got out of a car and demanded the then 13- and 14-year-old boys give them their tennis shoes and the contents of their pockets, which turned out to be a cell phone and their wallets. Fohrenkam was convicted of felony simple robbery in that case, and the shoes were eventually returned to their owners.

Fohrenkam’s lengthy criminal history includes second-degree arson, drug possession, another simple robbery, driving and weapons violations in Hennepin, St. Louis and Carlton counties dating back to 2010. Pending local charges of possession of marijuana and trespassing were dismissed by Cloquet city attorney Frank Yetka on Feb. 3, because of the second-degree homicide conviction in Hennepin County.