Man pleads guilty to setting fires following Floyd’s death

MINNEAPOLIS – A Rochester man who fled to Mexico with his wife after being charged with setting fire to a St. Paul school and two stores during the riots that followed the death of George Floyd has pleaded guilty to arson.

Thirty-five-year-old Jose Felan Jr. entered the plea in federal court last week in connection with the fires set on May 28, 2020, three days after Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis. Sentencing for Felan has not been set.

Felan and 23-year-old Mena Dyaha Yousif were detained by authorities in Mexico after the U.S. Marshals Service located them in February 2021.

Yousif was with Felan when he set the fires and helped him escape capture pleaded guilty to being an accessory.