Man Convicted in Deadly Arson During Minneapolis Riot Seeks to Reopen Appeal Window

The attorney for a Rochester man who pleaded guilty to setting a deadly fire during the unrest following George Floyd’s murder is urging a federal appeals court to reconsider the window of time he can contest his sentence.

Montez Lee Jr., 30, was charged with arson in connection with the blaze that engulfed Max It Pawn store in the 2700 block of E. Lake Street on May 28, 2020, following Floyd’s killing. The remains of Oscar Lee Stewart Jr., 30, of Burnsville were found on the property nearly two months later. An autopsy by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Stewart died of smoke inhalation and excessive burns.

U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright sentenced Lee on Jan. 14, 2022, to 10 years in prison in a term that fell well below federal guidelines.

Yet Lee is pushing for the reopening of his appeal window in an aim for the trial court to reconsider his motion to vacate his sentence. In court filings, Lee argues his trial attorney was ineffective by not contesting the government’s stance that his actions led to Stewart’s death. Had his attorney successfully argued that point, Lee argues, he would have faced a prison term of five years.

Wright dismissed Lee’s motion to vacate that he filed in April 2023, stating it was past the one-year deadline tied to his conviction and should’ve been filed in February.

In front of a three-judge panel in the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, Lee’s attorney, Kira Kelley, argued the clock should’ve actually started April 2022 when his conviction was “final,” or could no longer be amended.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate Buzicky countered that Lee’s argument poses a “wholesale change” to how the court calculates deadlines.

The panel will issue a decision later.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Calhoun-Lopez originally called for leniency against Lee in presentence filings, likening him to a protester, not a rioter, and stating he was in Minneapolis “to protest unlawful police violence against [Black] men, and there is no basis to disbelieve his statement.”

Surveillance video footage showed Lee pouring an accelerant around the shop and lighting it. A second video captured him in front of the burning business and declaring, “We’re gonna burn this [expletive] down.”

“[There were] many people who felt angry, frustrated and disenfranchised, and who were attempting — in many cases in an unacceptably reckless and dangerous manner — to give voice to those feelings. Mr. Lee appears to be squarely in this … category," Lopez wrote.

Before Wright handed down the 10-year sentence, Calhoun-Lopez argued for a 12-year prison term. Federal sentencing guidelines were in line for 19½ to 20 years. Lee’s defense attorney argued for no more than 7⅓ years in prison.

Lee was not specifically prosecuted for Stewart’s death, and he claimed to not know anyone was in the building. Stewart’s death is one of the two confirmed amid the riots after Floyd’s murder by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

The other death was Calvin “Chuck” Horton Jr., 43, who was killed following a shooting outside a pawn and jewelry store on Lake Street. The man arrested after the gunfire was later released and charges were never filed.

Paul Walsh of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.

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