17-year-old sentenced in killing; underage drinking cited in crime

WALKER -- A 17-year-old man has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in the October beating death of a Shakopee man.

Kenneth Conger Jr. of Federal Dam was one of two young northern Minnesotans sentenced Monday in the robbery, kidnapping and baseball-bat killing of 21-year-old Brian Jenny.

The crime was blamed partly on widespread underage drinking and illegal drug use on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation.

"I don't know when in our community and county we will overcome the damage alcohol and drugs do," said Cass County District Judge John Smith as he handed out Conger's sentence.

Smith later sentenced 21-year-old Stephanie Losh of Bena to a year in jail and 40 years probation with a variety of conditions.

Losh pleaded guilty in April to kidnapping Jenny by driving the car used to haul him from Federal Dam to a swamp where he was dumped after being beaten unconscious.

The slaying occurred after a night of drinking at a small fishing resort where Jenny and his brother-in-law were staying. Hunters found Jenny unconscious the next morning, Oct. 6. He died the following day.

Conger pleaded guilty last month one day after a co-defendant, Leah Harper-Jenkins, 20, of Bena, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for her role in the killing.

Yet to be tried in connection with events at Federal Dam Oct. 5 is Stephanie Lynn Day, 20, Burnsville, who faces felony counts of second-degree assault and aiding and abetting an offender. She currently is scheduled for a Sept. 23 jury trial in Cass County District Court.

She is accused of assaulting Jenny's brother-in-law, David Matzke, and aiding Conger following the fatal assault on Jenny. Conger was arrested when he turned himself in to Burnsville Police Department.

According to initial court complaints filed against the defendants in the case, Jenny and Matzke were at a party at Abe's Cabins in Federal Dam where the defendants also were present.