It’s probably harder than you think. In NYS depraved indifference murder typically does not apply to one-on-one killings. That culpable mental state might be (and probably is) defined differently in Minnesota. I’m not being funny; you said “the very definition of” the depraved indifference culpable mental state. Do you have the definition of that culpable mental state? I’d like to see it.
All of that said, again, I would have charged the case exactly as it was done in Minnesota. I don’t think this is intentional murder, and the depraved indifference charge on top of the manslaughter could allow a jury to compromise but still convict.