Brian Scott Poquette sentenced in Frank J. Brown's cold case murder

Brian Scott Poquette goes to prison.

Almost 20 years ago, a homeless guy named Brian Scott Poquette was polishing off a couple of cases of beer down by St. Anthony Falls with the help of three other drinking buddies.

A fight broke out, and two of those men died.

Frank J. Brown, 41 at the time, fell down a cement embankment, passed out, and Poquette smashed a rock over his head, killing him.

Poquette also took a rock to the head of another man, Gregory P. Anderson, 30. Seventeen months later, Anderson was dead too.

Brian Scott Poquette confessed, and was sentenced yesterday.

But Poquette was never arrested. Police questioned him at the time, but had to let him go for a lack of evidence. He claimed he'd passed out that night.

Then, in a cold case worthy of TV cop show script, investigators were finally able to catch up with their man after a new DNA test linked blood on one of Poquette's shoes to one of the victims.

And in a lucky break, Poquette happened to be in an Albuquerque, N.M., jail on unrelated charges. Police confronted him, and he confessed.

Yesterday, after pleading guilty in both deaths, 47-year-old Poquette was sentenced to 28 years in prison for killing Brown.