MURDER SENTENCES REDUCED

As a result of a Supreme Court decision, Cass County Judge John P. Smith has reduced sentences for two felons convicted of beating a man to death in 2003. Kenneth Conrad Conger, Jr. and Leah Danielle Harper-Jenkins were found guilty of beating Brian Jenny with a baseball bat at a party near Federal Dam. The two then abandoned him on a rural road where hunters found him the next morning. The Supreme Court ruled that sentences beyond state maximum guidelines in certain cases had to be approved by a jury. Conger's sentence was reduced from 35 to 32 years in prison, Harper-Jenkins from 30 to 28 years.