South Dakota teen sentenced to 15 years for botched drug deal murder in Austin

Mark Wasson, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·1 min read

Oct. 27—AUSTIN — A Sioux Falls, South Dakota, man was sentenced to 180 months in Mower County District Court for killing a man during a 2021 botched drug deal in Austin.

Miguel Nunez Jr., 19, pleaded

guilty to a second-degree murder

charge in June 2022 as part of a plea deal that dismissed two other second-degree murder charges against him.

District Judge Kevin Siefken credited Nunez with 477 days for time served. Nunez had been in custody since July 2021.

Nunez pleaded guilty to fatally shooting David Harris, 45, of Austin.

A juvenile who spoke to the police reported that he and Nunez went to Harris' Austin home on June 5, 2021, under the guise of buying marijuana, but intended to rob the home's residents. Nunez dropped his weapon on the way out of the house, according to the criminal complaint.

Law enforcement investigating a shooting complaint

found Harris in his home with three gunshot wounds to the chest

. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A second person, whose identity was not released, was injured, Austin Police Capt. Todd Clennon said shortly after the incident.

Following the shooting, Nunez fled the state before being apprehended July 8, 2021, in the attic of a Sioux Falls home.