A man from Minnesota will spend decades in prison for killing a guy he thought was delivering drugs that would kill his girlfriend’s brother.
Bradley Allen Weyaus Jr., who is 23 years old, was given a 306-month jail sentence Thursday for killing Rodney Pendegayosh Jr. This is 25 years and six months. Late in May, Weyaus admitted to killing someone in the second degree.
In a sentencing statement, Weyaus’s lawyer said that his behavior was partly due to the fact that he was Native American.
Bradley Allen Weyaus, Jr. was born into a life and heritage that he didn’t have a say in. His legacy is shaped by pain that has been passed down through generations, systemic neglect, and the long-lasting harms that Native American communities, including his own, have suffered from colonization and forced displacement, his lawyer wrote.
A psychiatrist said that he had depression, PTSD, and trauma-related anguish, just like a lot of American Indians.
An internal letter says that he was unstable all through his life and saw his stepfather abuse his mother. The memo said that Weyaus saw his grandma stab his mom when he was 10 years old and that he later grew up in foster homes where he was abused as well. His lawyers wrote that he turned to drugs and drinks because of this.
“Sleeping inside Bradley Weyaus are fragments of traumas too great to be resolved in one generation,” his lawyer said. “This is the story of Bradley Weyaus, a young Native American man who after a childhood and adolescence marked by repeated abuse, individual trauma, and generational trauma fell into the iron grip of meth and turned to drug dealing to support his addiction and ease his trauma.”
His lover Alexis Marion Elling, who was also on trial with him, pleaded guilty to helping a criminal in February 2024. She was not sentenced until Weyaus’ case was over. For giving her word against Weyaus, she got a five-year prison term put on hold and up to five years of supervised probation. On August 15, she will be given her sentence.
According to the police, the suspects thought that Pendegayosh, who is 25 years old, gave Elling’s brother a fatal mix of fentanyl and meth.
Police said that the couple’s act was not like others.
At the time that charges were made, Mille Lacs County Sheriff Kyle Burton said at a news conference, “This whole thing is really strange.” “This body was moved multiple places for a period of possibly up to a week before the discovery was made.”
Pendegayosh’s body was found in a tote bag tied together with bungee cords and tape by a public works maintenance crew that was picking up trash along a snowy highway in March 2023.
This is what they think they see: a cut foot,” the sheriff said. They put the bag shut and called the cops.
On the way to the scene of the crime, a police officer saw a white Saturn that was likely being driven by Weyaus. Weyaus ran away and avoided being caught for a while. The police officer finally found the car, which was empty and stuck in a driveway. The homeowners showed them where the suspect was hiding: in a camper trailer on their land. This led to the arrest. The police found a knife, a hammer, and black tape that looked like the tape on the tote in Wayaus’ duffel bag.
There was more evidence that led to the couple. There was a wasted shotgun shell in the suspect’s car, but no gun, it seemed. In the dumpster at the suspect’s apartment, police found Pendegayosh’s ID and credit card, as well as a bloody carpet, gloves, and a receipt from a hardware shop.
