Detention hearing for Amir Locke's cousin, Mehki Speed, delayed until next week, allowing his family to consult with attorneys

• Mehki Speed, 17, was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
• He is accused of killing 38-year-old Otis Elder.

The teenager accused of murdering a 38-year-old man last month in Saint Paul, Minnesota — setting off a manhunt that resulted in police killing his cousin, Amir Locke, during a no-knock raid — will remain in custody another week while his family consults with attorneys, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Mehki Speed, 17, was arrested early Tuesday and charged with two counts of second-degree murder for the January 10 killing of Otis Elder.

The juvenile appeared at a remote detention hearing Tuesday afternoon before Ramsey County Judge Stephen L. Smith. Also appearing was Speed's mother, Cheryl Locke, and other family members who joined the call from the office of criminal defense attorney Steve Meshbesher.

The case has attracted national attention due to last week's killing of Locke, 22, after Minneapolis police executed a no-knock search warrant and entered the apartment where he was sleeping in an effort to find Speed.

Body-camera footage shows Locke was under a blanket on a living room couch when police stormed the home just before 7 a.m. local time. He was killed while he had a pistol in his hand. His family says he was a legal gun owner.

An 'unusual' hearing

Meshbesher asked the court to postpone the hearing by one or two days, explaining that Speed's family had only walked into his office a half-hour earlier and needed time to discuss the financial cost of representing the 17-year-old.

Also appearing was another attorney, Paul Sellers, who said he had met with Speed that morning and had previously represented him. At the time of the January shooting, Speed was on probation for shooting someone in the leg in September 2020, the Star Tribune reported.

"I must say, this is unusual for me to have two unretained defense counsels," Judge Smith said at Tuesday's hearing.

Smith granted Meshbesher's request to hold the hearing at a later date. Speed will be detained in the meantime, the judge said, citing the existence of "sufficient grounds to be concerned for public safety."

Speed himself agreed with the decision, saying that he needed "more time to talk with my family and my attorney."

A detention hearing is now set for February 15 at 3:30 p.m. local time.

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