On Wednesday, August 9, Sixth Judicial District Judge Eric Hylden sentenced Kirk Lee Bigby, 63, to 12½ years in prison for the murder of Marcus Lee Roberts, a 35-yearold Twin Cities man working at a December Bluefin Bay holiday event.
Hylden’s verdict came after nearly two hours of hearings in State District Court held in the Cook County courthouse in Grand Marais.
In May Bigby pleaded guilty to a charge of unintentional second-degree murder of Roberts. Up until that time he had pleaded self-defense.
On December 9, 2015, the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office law enforcement dispatchers received a 9-1-1 call reporting gunshots fired in the parking lot of Bluefin Bay Resort’s Bluefin Grille at 12:12 a.m. Sheriff’s deputies arrived to find Roberts, of Bloomington, Minnesota on the ground, bleeding and unresponsive. He was declared dead shortly before 1 a.m. Roberts was at the party working for a Twin Cities casino gaming company that was providing entertainment for the Bluefin employees. Witnesses at the Bluefin Bay Resort employee holiday party identified Bigby, a resort staff member, as the alleged shooter. Bigby was found in a guest room. Also in the chamber was a gun matching the caliber used in the shooting. He was arrested and booked into the Cook County Jail on the charge of 2nd-degree murder.
Two days later Bigby appeared before Judge Michael Cuzzo for arraignment in Cook County court on a charge of 2nd-degree murder.
County Attorney Molly Hicken asked bail to be set at $1 million, stating that Bigby was a threat to public safety. Hicken said Bigby was the owner of several firearms and that he had firearms in his possession at the Bluefin property. Hicken said Bigby shot Roberts with no warning and no provocation. His act, said Hicken, took from his family, “a son, a brother and a father of five children.”
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