Daniel Cisse
FARGO (KFGO) – A Fargo man has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiracy to tamper with a witness after he attacked a fellow prisoner in the Cass County jail last year. 19-year-old Daniel Saydee Cisse pleaded guilty to the charge in September.
The sentence imposed by Chief District Judge Peter Welte on Thursday morning exceeds the top end of federal sentencing guidelines, which call for 78-97 months, but is one year less than the recommendation of federal prosecutors. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Myers said the case was “not a run-of-the-mill tampering case” and that the government asked for a longer sentence due in part to the “particularly staggering” nature of the violence involved and because of the need to “protect the public from future crimes of this defendant.”
Cisse was tapped by two fellow inmates, Jesse Burnett and Shaquiel Mendez, to assault Josh Brooks, who was a key witness in a murder case against Burnett. Myers said the three co-conspirators intended to influence or prevent not only Brooks from testifying but also to make other potential witnesses concerned about providing information to law enforcement regarding the drug-related homicide of Santino Marial, who was shot to death in Fargo in August of 2020. Brooks was also charged for his role in the drive-by shooting.
Brooks was shooting baskets at the jail last January when Cisse attacked him with a pencil. Cisse also showed Brooks a picture he had drawn of a rat with cheese and the word “fraud” written on discovery papers Burnett had obtained indicating Brooks was cooperating with investigators in the murder case.
Myers claimed the co-conspirators knew about Cisse’s reputation for violence – he was in jail for a November 2022 assault – and tapped him for the attack because “they knew he would do a good job.” But Cisse’s defense attorney Jennifer Braun told the court Brooks had been bragging to other inmates about having slept with Cisse’s ex-girlfriend and he was picked because Burnett and Mendez knew Cisse was upset about it.
Several family members and friends provided statements to the court and pleaded for leniency for Cisse. His older sister told the court the siblings had grown up in dire poverty and been sexually abused by their mother’s boyfriend, and that both of them had gotten in trouble with the law after being taken in by people who were the “wrong crowd but they were in our corner.”
Cisse addressed the court with a statement entitled “Am I Monster?” which addressed his mental struggles, among other things. Braun said Cisse’s disciplinary troubles in jail correlated with a decline in his mental health. She asked the court to impose a two-year sentence in the case.
Welte said that while he believed there was good in Cisse, he was concerned about Cisse’s propensity for violence and believed he would benefit from the structure and education he could receive during the 11-year sentence. He said he would request that Cisse be initially designated to a federal medical center for a complete psychological evaluation.
Co-defendants Burnett and Mendez are currently set for trial on July 16, 2024 in the case.
Brooks plead guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced as an accomplice in the Marial murder case in March. The state case against Burnett has been dismissed.
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