Plea Deal For Minnesota Child’s Shooting Death Appears in Doubt

Fairmont, MN (KROC-AM News) - It appears a plea deal stemming from a shooting that took the life of a two-year-old child in southern Minnesota last fall has fallen apart.

34-year-old Colton Mammenga of Welcome is charged with two counts of second-degree manslaughter, a felony child endangerment charge, and a gross misdemeanor charge of negligent storage of firearms. Several months ago, a court filing indicated he had reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in Martin County and was set to admit to the felony child endangerment charge in exchange for the dismissal of all the other charges.

READ MORE: Minnesota Man’s Plea Deal in Child’s Death Includes No Jail Time

The criminal case is connected to the death of his two-year-old son. He was fatally shot by his four-year-old brother while they were in the backseat of a pickup truck that was being driven by their mother on a Highway near Fairmont last October. The charges allege Mammenga left a loaded handgun in a storage pocket in the passenger side door of the pickup while he and the mother of their children went back inside their residence to grab some items.

Court documents indicate Mammenga admitted to investigators that he left the gun in the door pocket. He stated to investigators that he and the children's mother were gone for approximately 3 to 5 minutes before they returned to the vehicle and drove away.

According to the criminal complaint, Mammenga went on to say that they were driving along Highway 263 moments after leaving their home when "he heard a loud pop and looked into the back seat and saw blood coming down from the two-year-old's forehead." He told investigators they immediately stopped and he grabbed his son and began administering CPR.

The now apparently collapsed plea agreement called for a sentence of probation with a stay of adjudication and no jail time. It did require Mammenga to participate in speaking events about the negligent storage of firearms.

Mammenga was scheduled to appear for what was listed as a plea hearing in Martin County Court earlier this week.  The hearing was held, but court records still show not guilty pleas have been entered for all the charges and a pretrial hearing has been scheduled next week. The Martin County Attorney was contacted but did not respond to inquiries concerning the status of the case.

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