Bryan Hooper Sr. is a Minnesota father, husband, and lifelong resident of the Twin Cities area who spent nearly three decades in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was wrongfully convicted in 1998 for the murder of 77-year-old Ann Prazniak, a crime he had no involvement in. Hooper’s life was upended, separating him from his family for 27 years, until new evidence led to his exoneration in 2025.
The breakthrough in his case came when Chalaka Young, the key witness who had testified against him, admitted in a handwritten prison letter that she was the true perpetrator. Young had previously implicated Hooper under threat of prosecution and received a lighter sentence. Her fingerprints were found at the scene, and several other witnesses who testified against Hooper have since recanted, admitting their statements were incentivized.
The Case That Led to a 27-Year Injustice
In April 1998, Prazniak’s body was discovered in her Minneapolis apartment, wrapped in blankets and Christmas lights inside a cardboard box. Officials ruled her cause of death as asphyxiation, and she had been dead for more than two weeks before police found her body. During that time, neighbors reported that her apartment was being used as a “drug haven” and for prostitution.
During the investigation, Young claimed Hooper had forced her to act as a lookout while he allegedly killed Prazniak, helped him hide the body, and threatened her. Hooper admitted he had been inside Prazniak’s apartment, where his fingerprints were found, but denied any involvement in the murder. At the time of his trial, Young was serving time for unrelated criminal charges and received a lighter sentence in exchange for her testimony.
A Long-Awaited Exoneration
In July 2025, while serving an eight-year sentence in Georgia for aggravated assault, Young sent a handwritten confession taking full responsibility for Prazniak’s death and expressing remorse for Hooper’s wrongful imprisonment. She repeated her admission to investigators and even to family on a recorded prison phone line.
“We are convinced that Bryan Hooper did not commit that crime; he has been in prison for 27 years for something he didn’t do,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Morarity said. The court vacated Hooper’s conviction, and on September 4, 2025, he walked out of the Stillwater Correctional Facility and reunited with his family.
What’s next
Now a free man, Hooper Sr. plans to remain in the Twin Cities to be close to his children and rebuild the life stolen from him. “Twenty-seven years of missed birthdays, missed milestones, holidays. 27 years of lost opportunity and time that we can’t get back. But today we don’t have to lose, we don’t,” his daughter Bri’ana Hooper said at a press conference.
The Minneapolis Police Department will continue investigating Prazniak’s murder. Young, who confessed, is expected to be released on unrelated charges in about four years but has not yet been charged in Prazniak’s death.
