Brian Griffin pleads guilty to Millennium Hotel murder

Brian Griffin was charged with Minneapolis' first murder of 2012.

Brian Vincent Griffin, a 33-year-old from Dayton, Minnesota, was smoking meth in the hotel room with three other people last February, according to the original charges. Two of the other men began "talking about things that made [Griffin] nervous." He got up to leave, but as he reached the door, thought to himself, "I have to do this," he later told police. Then he turned around and shot Jeremy Robert Shannon multiple times.

Police arrived at the hotel around 2:25 a.m., and Shannon died on scene. They found Griffin across the street at the Hyatt, hiding in a closet, according to the charges.

It was Minneapolis's first murder of 2012.

In addition to the murder charge, Griffin also pleaded guilty to second-degree assault. He will be officially sentenced June 4, but Griffin faces about 26 years in prison for the murder charge and another five years for the assault, which could be served concurrently, according to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.