Daniel Cisse
FARGO (KFGO) – A man accused of attacking a fellow prisoner in the Cass County jail earlier this year has pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of witness tampering in the case.
Prosecutors say 19-year-old Daniel Cisse attacked Joshua Brooks while he was shooting baskets at the Cass County Jail on January 14 at the behest of two other prisoners.
Two years after Santino Marial was gunned down in Fargo, Brooks was arrested for his role in the 2020 fatal drive-by shooting. Weeks later, another man, Jesse Burnett, was arrested in the case and accused of Marial’s murder.
Prosecutors say while in jail and despite a protective order in the case, Burnett received discovery information from the state’s case against him which indicated Brooks was cooperating with investigators. Burnett and another inmate, Shaq Mendez, then conspired to retaliate against Brooks, who was incarcerated in another pod of the jail. Mendez was later transferred into Brooks’ pod and enlisted Cisse, who was in jail on a separate assault charge, to carry out the attack on Brooks.
Prosecutors say Cisse carried with him a picture of a rat and cheese and paperwork with the word “fraud” written in it when he attacked Brooks. Jail video shows Cisse punching and kicking Brooks, and stabbing him with a pencil.
The government offered Cisse a plea deal in exchange for his guilty plea, which calls for a 12-year sentence, a downward adjustment from the 30-year maximum the witness tampering charge carries with it.
Cisse’s sentencing is set for January 18, 2024. Burnett and Mendez are awaiting a scheduled February trial in the case.
Brooks is scheduled to be sentenced as an accomplice in the Marial murder case in November. The state case against Burnett has been dismissed.
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