Springfield man sentenced to prison on burglary charges

A Springfield man with a lengthy criminal history will spend just over a year in prison on burglary charges.

Ryan Dale Tyrrell, 49, was sentenced Tuesday in Brown County Court to 57 months in prison with credit for 67 days served.  Minnesota inmates generally serve about two-thirds of the sentence handed down by the courts, with the remainder of the sentence served on probation.

Tyrrell was charged in September 2021 after he kicked in a door on a Springfield home and punched a man inside who owed him $50.  Court documents say Tyrrell also threatened to kill the victim while he was in the house.  He had a pending felony domestic assault case in Murray County at the time of the incident.

In April, Tyrrell agreed to plea guilty to a charge of 1st-degree burglary if the prosecutor dismissed additional charges of burglary, assault, and threats of violence, and allowed the defense to argue for a departure from the sentencing guidelines.

Brown County prosecutor Paul J. Gunderson argued against a departure, telling the courts in a memo that Tyrrell’s behavior before, during, and after the burglary showed probation was not an appropriate punishment.

Tyrrell was convicted of felony domestic assault for the Murray County case in Sept 2021 and received a sentencing departure in that case.  He’s also been convicted of felony domestic assault in Redwood County in 2014, and in Cottonwood County in 2012.

Gunderson’s memo says Tyrrell was apprehended after testing positive for substances in April 2022, and he was kicked out of treatment for behavior problems earlier this month.

Tyrrell will serve his sentence at the Minnesota Department of Corrections St. Cloud facility.