A series of well orchestrated lies sent a father of two to prison for almost three decades for murder. Now, Bryan Hooper Sr. is a free man after a star witness confessed to the gruesome killing.
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Hooper was pinned for the 1998 murder of a 77-year-old Minneapolis woman named Ann Prazniak. According to court records, Prazniak was found with her body stuffed inside of a cardboard box in her bedroom closet. An autopsy determined she died by asphyxiation two weeks prior to police discovering her body.
During those two weeks, neighbors reportedly saw people coming in and out of her apartment, the Great North Innocence Project (GNIP) reported. Police believe the residence was being used to operate a drug and prostitution ring. The investigation also found fingerprints of a woman named Chalaka “Shay” Young at the scene, and brought her in for questioning.
Quickly, Young pinned the whole thing on Hooper Sr., whose fingerprints were also taken from the crime scene, GNIP said. Young reportedly met with police four times before she confessed it was Hooper. who killed the victim while she was simply the lookout. “She also stated Bryan threatened to kill her if she told anyone about what she saw,” according to GNIP.
Four other witnesses testified against Hooper, and that same year, a jury found him guilty, sentencing him to three concurrent life sentences despite witnesses’ testimonies contradicting each other. But in the following years, the case against Hooper Sr. would start to fall apart…
The four witness — all except Young — recanted their statements, admitting police and prosecutors coerced them to testify against Hooper. He went back to court five times seeking post-conviction relief, but each time he was denied. In total, he spent 27 years behind bars until Young made a shocking confession in July 2025.
She is currently serving out a 10-year bid in a Georgia prison on unrelated charges, Daily Mail reported. But it’s during this time that Young decided to finally tell the whole truth. “I am not okay any longer with [an] innocent man sitting in prison for a crime he did not commit,” she said in a written confession.
She continued taking “responsibility for two innocent lives that I have destroyed–” both Hooper Sr. and the victim, Prazniak. This confession finally lit a fire under Hooper Sr.’s case status, and on Sept. 3, a judge validated his petition. The next day, he was officially a free man.
“We are relieved that Mr. Hooper can finally return home to his family after 27 years, and I want to again apologize to him and his family for our office’s role in that injustice,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said, according to KSTP. “We wish Mr. Hooper all the best as he begins to navigate a world that is barely recognizable from the world he knew in 1998.”
Video capturing Hooper Sr.’s first moments as a free man showed him greeting his two now-adult children and his legal team. “My father Bryan Hooper Sr. is an innocent man, and he’s always been an innocent man,” his daughter, Brianna, said.
In 2024, 147 people were exonerated for crimes they did not commit, according to a report from the National Registry of Exonerations. Now at 54 years old, Hooper joins the long list of folks now free of any wrongdoing.
“Hopefully, good things happen from here,” Hooper said following his release. “That’s what I’m looking forward to.” A GoFundMe in support of him has raised over $2,400.
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