The driver charged with killing three Minneapolis men after heading the wrong way down Interstate 94 last summer in western Wisconsin was sentenced Monday to 75 years in prison.

Serghei Kundilovski, 36, of Orangevale, Calif., pleaded guilty in November 2017 in Dunn County Circuit Court to three counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle.

On Monday, Dunn County Judge James Peterson sentenced Kundilovski for 25 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision for each count of homicide to be served consecutively.

In addition, he will have to pay $39,000 in restitution for the funeral expenses to the victims’ families.

After court was dismissed, people applauded the sentence.

Kundilovski sat with his head down for most of the hearing in front of enlarged photos of the three victims: Adam Kendhammer, 32, Jeremy Berchem, 27, and Bryan Rudell, 29, all of Minneapolis.

At the time of the July 13 crash, Kendhammer was driving Rudell, who was his boyfriend, and Berchem, their friend, from Minneapolis to a cabin in Wisconsin.

Kundilovski, a Russian immigrant, listened through two interpreters, who took turns translating the 20 victim-impact statements, which lasted for three hours.

Dunn County District Attorney Andrea Nodolf told the court that more than 100 such statements were collected.

In Nodolf’s statements, she showed photos from the aftermath of the crash, played audio from a 911 call, and presented dash-cam footage from a semi truck driving down I-94 where the court could see Kundilovski’s Mitsubishi Diamonte dangerously weaving between traffic.

“These crimes not only impacted Menomonie and our citizens here but Minnesota, England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand as well as the number of people in this room, their families, their friends, their co-workers,” Nodolf said related to statements from acquaintances of the victims.

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Kundilovski apologized, through an interpreter, to the victims’ family and said that he didn’t intend to harm anyone.

According to the criminal complaint:

Kundilovski was driving the wrong direction east on I-94 when he struck an oncoming Kia Soul.

Witnesses told police that Kundilovski was driving his vehicle west when he traveled through the median, onto the eastbound lanes and directly into oncoming traffic.

The nearly head-on collision about nine miles west of Menomonie killed all three Minneapolis men in the Kia.

Wisconsin state troopers found two Ultra Duster canned-air units in Kundilovski’s car. Authorities believe Kundilovski was huffing, using the aerosol to get a high.

The state hygiene lab tested Kundilovski’s blood, which showed he had ethanol and difluoroethane — a compound in aerosol and air duster cans — in his system at the time of the crash.

He also had a 0.02 blood-alcohol level, below the legal limit to drive of 0.08.

A Vadnais Heights City Council member has pleaded guilty to violating a restraining order taken out against him by his ex-girlfriend.

Terry Nyblom, 54, entered a guilty plea to one count of violating a domestic abuse no contact order in Ramsey County Court this week, court records say.

Neither he nor his attorney could be immediately reached for comment about the case.

Nyblom was served a copy of the order after he was arrested for domestic assault against his former girlfriend and interfering with a 911 last April.

His ex told police at the time that Nyblom made threats to injure and kill her while he’d been drinking and forcibly pulled her up from a chair, leaving her skin bruised.

Nyblom denied the allegations but wound up pleading guilty to disorderly conduct last November after reaching a plea deal.

A couple months later, Nyblom violated his no contact order when he called his ex in January to ask her why she’d pursued charges against him.

When she told him he wasn’t supposed to be calling, Nyblom replied, “Well (I’m) going to jail.”

He then texted her twice after she hung up on him.

He opted to plead guilty after the state filed a motion of its intent to introduce evidence of Nyblom’s involvement in a separate alleged incident with his former girlfriend should the case go to trial, according to the legal document.

In that incident, his ex reported to the state that Nyblom pushed her after becoming upset with her and sent her a threatening text message that read:

“If you hold her head underwater long enough, she quit breathing.”

Nyblom is scheduled to be sentenced for his latest conviction in late June.

Per the terms of his plea deal, Nyblom is expected to receive another stayed sentence so long as he continues to receive domestic violence counseling, follow the recommendations of a chemical health assessment, and commit no more similar offenses.

The father of two was first elected to the Vadnais Heights City Council in 2012 and was re-elected to the seat in 2015.

He is works as an auto technician, according to his biography on the city’s website.

A Mahtomedi man was sentenced to 180 days in jail for racing through the Roseville area at speeds topping 120 miles per hour plowing into an SUV, seriously injuring the other driver.

Michael Flodine, 51, also received a stayed five-year prison sentence when Ramsey County District Judge Richard Kyle last week sentenced him on one count of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm, court records say.

He was also ordered to complete treatment, a defensive-driving course and cognitive skills training, as well as read all the letters of support submitted on behalf of the victim in the case.

Steven Gernes of St. Paul suffered severe injuries to his right leg and ankle after Flodine plowed head-on into his northbound SUV on Roselawn Avenue in Roseville on Dec. 2, 2016.

Witnesses told police that Flodine was driving his 2008 Audi A6 east on Minnesota 36 that day when the car suddenly left the highway and plunged down a steep embankment.

His car then crashed through a chain-link fence and onto southbound Fairview Avenue, where it collided with a concrete lane divider before continuing south on the busy thoroughfare at speeds of 120 to 135 mph.

As Flodine’s Audi approached Roselawn Avenue, it reportedly passed a line of vehicles waiting at a four-way stop sign before striking Gernes’ SUV.

Gernes and Flodine were rushed via ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center for emergency treatment.

Both vehicles were “completely destroyed,” the complaint said.

Neither Flodine nor his public defender could be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.

Court records show Flodine has been cited for speeding and other traffic violations in the past.

A St. Paul man is heading to jail after punching a nationally known comedian in the face at a bar on University Avenue and taking off with his wallet.

Anthony Charles Deberry, 36, was ordered to serve 90 days in jail when a Ramsey County District Court judge sentenced him at a hearing last week, according to court records.

He also received a 10-year stayed prison sentence so long as he follows the terms of his probation, which include receiving a chemical health assessment and undergoing mental health programming.

Josh Blue, a St. Paul native, was in town for a gig at the Joke Joint Comedy Club when he and some acquaintances stopped in at Hot Rods Bar & Grill on University Avenue around 9 p.m. last July 17.

Two hours later, while Blue was in the bathroom, Deberry approached him, punched him twice in the face with a closed fist, and fled with his wallet.

A bar employee told police that Deberry, a regular at the establishment, was the assailant.

A woman walking her dog in the area the next day found Blue’s wallet with his cash missing, according to the complaint.

Deberry was arrested shortly thereafter.

He pleaded guilty to the simple robbery charge in February after reaching a plea deal with the state. He previously faced one count of first-degree aggravated robbery but that charge was dismissed as part of the agreement.

Neither he nor his public defender could be immediately reached for comment.

Hot Rods recently closed, and the three-story building is now up for sale.

The bar had drawn negative attention from the St. Paul Police Department before, including an incident in September 2016 where an undercover police officer was allowed to leave the building with an open alcoholic beverage.

In a separate incident that October, a man wanted by St. Paul police on an outstanding gross misdemeanor warrant was arrested in a surveillance operation after leaving the bar with the night manager, whom he was reportedly dating. Police said he had brought an alcoholic beverage with him outside the establishment and into his car.

Bar managers said at the time they felt targeted by the city, and they felt city officials were trying to clean up the area in advance of the opening of the Major League Soccer stadium under construction across the street.

Frederick Melo contributed to this report.

A Minnesota grandmother who led authorities on a cross-country manhunt after she allegedly killed her husband tried to hide a second killing in Florida, detectives say.

Newly released court documents in the case of Lois Riess detail her time in Fort Myers, Fla., in the days after her husband was slain.

David Riess, 54, was found fatally shot at their home in Blooming Prairie, Minn., on March 23, after a business partner in their Prairie Wax Worm Farm called authorities saying no one had seen him for more than two weeks.

Investigators believe Lois Reiss, 56, arrived in Fort Myers on April 3, and soon met 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson of Bradenton.

Detectives say it’s unclear how Hutchinson and Riess met, but investigators found surveillance video of the two women walking to Hutchinson’s condo-hotel room on April 4. The next night, the two women were caught again on surveillance video, at the Smoking Oyster Brewery on Fort Myers Beach.

At 7:46 that night, the two women were spotted on hotel video, and that was the last time Hutchinson was seen alive. For the next two days, Riess was recorded on surveillance video — at times carrying garbage bags to the parking lot — but Hutchinson wasn’t seen at all.

Authorities believe Riess killed Hutchinson because she wanted to assume her identity. The two women were close in age and stature, and both had almost white hair.

On April 6, hotel employees said someone claiming to be Hutchinson said she wanted to extend her stay, and her credit card was charged for an additional three days. Someone also withdrew $5,000 from Hutchinson’s bank account that day. That evening, an Acura registered to Hutchinson was seen pulling into a hotel in Ocala, a few hours north of Fort Myers.

Hutchinson’s body wasn’t found until April 9, when a hotel employee entered the unit. She was found dead in the bathroom, lying on a pillow and covered with a towel. She’d been shot twice, once in the heart and once in the side.

“A bath towel was placed on the floor, outside the bathroom door and shoved up against the void, creating a seal,” detectives wrote in a report. Her credit cards, car keys, driver’s license and gold rings were missing.

Ten days later, Riess was arrested at a waterfront restaurant by two federal deputy marshals in South Padre Island, Texas, when an employee recognized her from surveillance video broadcast on television. She was drinking cocktails at the bar when she was taken into custody.

Riess was extradited to Florida, where she was charged with one count of second-degree murder, plus one count each of grand theft, grand theft of an automobile and criminal use of personal identification. Charges in Minnesota are pending.

Riess has been assigned a public defender, and is scheduled for a court hearing in Lee County on Thursday. A woman answering the phone at the Lee County public defender’s office said there is no comment on Riess’ case.

DELANO, Minn. — Authorities want to know why a motorist fired shots at an empty school bus being driven through Delano.

Shots were reported fired at the bus just before 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Wright County sheriff’s deputies arrived and were told by the bus driver that a car had followed him out of a gas station and stayed with the bus until it turned into the bus yard. Several bullets were then fired into the bus.

The driver was not hit but was cut in the face by flying glass. Investigators found four empty bullet casings on the road and several bullet holes in the bus. A garage door and two other buses also were hit.

KARE-TV reported that no one has been arrested but authorities don’t believe there is a safety risk.

Minneapolis police are asking for the public’s help in finding a missing child.

Nine-year-old K’dion Williams was last seen at his school, Nellie Stone Elementary in North Minneapolis, at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to a news release issued by the Minneapolis Police Department.

K’dion is 4 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 75 pounds, the news release said. He was last seen wearing a navy sweatshirt and khaki pants.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call 911.

Right now, it’s not illegal in Minnesota for police officers to have sex with people in their custody.

That might be about to change.

On Tuesday, the state House overwhelmingly approved a sweeping public safety bill that includes a provision that would close what some have called a sexual assault loophole, and the Senate has also approved closing the loophole.

There’s a national move afoot to address the issue, and there is at least one documented case in Minnesota where a cop was accused of having a sexual relationship — apparently legally — with a woman by leveraging his authority over her. In that case, the officer was suspended but never charged with a crime, and he’s still a cop today.

Here’s the loophole.

OFFICER LOOPHOLE

To be clear, it’s illegal for anyone, including a peace officer, to forcibly have sex with someone.

Jail guards are already barred from having sex with inmates, psychotherapists are barred from having sex with patients under their care, and other authority figures are similarly prevented from legally having sex with people under their influence.

But not cops. In Minnesota, an officer can argue that the sex was consensual, even if the victim was in handcuffs — a power dynamic many believe is absurdly imbalanced and is tantamount to rape.

Advocates for sexual assault victims note that under numerous scenarios, a suspect for a crime like drug possession or prostitution could be implicitly coerced into “consenting” to sex in exchange for leniency, whether she’s physically restrained or not. And if it’s the word of a police officer against an alleged drug user or prostitute, juries might be inclined to trust the cop, they say. And, advocates say, people facing other criminal charges are unlikely to report the assault.

Minnesota’s hardly alone.

WIDESPREAD LOOPHOLE

The issue rose on the radars of many around the country last year following the news of an 18-year-old New York woman who accused two officers of raping her while handcuffed in the back of a police van. They were arrested and indicted, but attorneys for the officers have suggested the acts were consensual. That such a defense could be offered for an incident involving a handcuffed suspect and on-duty officers shocked many.

“I thought, ‘My God, my daughter is about that age,'” said state Rep. Kelly Fenton, R-Woodbury. “Clearly, when someone is in custody of a police officer, (the officer) is in a position of power over them. I was surprised it wasn’t illegal already.”

When Fenton learned, via a Buzzfeed analysis showing that 35 states allow cops to have sex with someone in their custody, she decided to try to close the loophole.

Her approach: Make it illegal for peace officers to have sex with anyone in custody or anyone who “does not reasonably feel free to leave the officer’s presence.” An officer who does so would be guilty of either third- or fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, both felonies, depending on the level of assault.

A number of states, including New York, Maryland and Massachusetts, have either taken similar steps or are in the process of doing so.

THE BCA OFFICER AND INFORMANT

Minnesota’s new law could have come into play in a 2014 federal lawsuit filed by a woman who alleged a senior special agent for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension used her immigration status as leverage to engage in a sexual relationship with her. He had arrested the woman years before in a drug bust and paid her as a confidential informant.

The case against then-Senior Special Agent Adam Castilleja was settled in 2015, costing taxpayers $117,500. While the extent of their sexual contact is unclear, an internal investigation found Castilleja violated BCA policies, including conduct unbecoming a peace officer for engaging in “unwelcome sexual advances/physical contact” and engaging in “any sexual contact or … lewd behavior.”

His defense to internal investigators: It was all consensual. he was never charged with a crime.

Castilleja was suspended for 30 days without pay, reassigned to different duties and stripped of his senior agent title. As of earlier this year, he remained a BCA special agent, although he no longer works with confidential informants. He has not returned requests for comment.

CLOSING OTHER LOOPHOLES

Closing such gaps in Minnesota’s sexual assault codes is a common theme at the Capitol this year.

Influenced by a range of factors, including the #MeToo movement, lawmakers have taken steps to stop high school teachers from legally having sex with students and remove an exception for the grabbing of clothed buttocks.

A rumor of a teenaged student seen with a gun on Snapchat led to a St. Paul school lockdown Wednesday, but police said they did not find the image or a gun.

Officers were notified that Capitol Hill Gifted and Talented Magnet School “had been informed about a possible threat on social media,” said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman. “The information the school received appears to be second hand and there was no proof a threat was ever made.”

The rumor was regarding a juvenile appearing to have a gun in a Snapchat video, said Toya Stewart Downey, school district spokeswoman. The juvenile was not on school property when the photo was allegedly posted, she said.

“It is still being investigated but it seems very unlikely that this report of a gun in a photos is true based on what has been discovered so far,” according to Stewart Downey.

The school at 560 Concordia Ave. went into lock down when administrators heard students talking about the rumors, Stewart Downey said.

Parents of Capitol Hill and Benjamin E. Mays IB World School, which shares the same building, were notified that buses would be home late as Capitol Hill went into lockdown minutes before dismissal.

A Duluth restaurant and its owners have pleaded guilty to tax fraud and will be required to pay nearly $300,000 in uncollected sales taxes.

Authorities said Osaka Sushi Hibachi Steak House used illegal computer software to erase cash sales from its records, removing thousands of line items from receipts in order to under-report monthly sales.

That led to them filing at least 15 false state tax returns in 2015 and 2016, the Minnesota Department of Revenue and St. Louis County Attorney’s Office alleged in charging the restaurateurs criminally in September.

Court records show that the business, operating as Osaka Duluth, Inc., pleaded guilty to 17 felony charges last month in State District Court. Also pleading guilty to felonies were owners Zhong Wei Lin and Dan Xu.

Osaka, Lin and Xu were jointly ordered to pay $251,666 in restitution to the Department of Revenue and $41,094 to the city of Duluth.

“These are first-of-their-kind convictions in Minnesota and highlight our investigators’ efforts to combat the growing use of sales suppression software,” said Revenue Commissioner Cynthia Bauerly. “These convictions demonstrate our determination to level the playing field so that businesses who report and pay their fair share of tax don’t have to compete with those who break the law.”

Although charges were filed for 15 months beginning in February 2015 through August 2016, the criminal complaints alleged that investigators found evidence that the defendants’ use of the sales suppression software dated back 35 months.

According to state officials, automated sales suppression devices and software, sometimes known as zappers, delete parts of cash transactions after the fact, creating a second set of books that allows a business to report smaller sales and illegally keep some of the tax that the customer paid.

Minnesota’s sales tax is a “trust tax” — customers pay the tax at the time of the sale with the expectation that businesses will remit it to the government on their behalf.

“Deliberately failing to turn over sales taxes collected increases the tax burden on all residents,” said St. Louis County Attorney Mark Rubin. “We hope this case sends a message to others engaging in this kind of behavior that it will not be tolerated, and you will be prosecuted when caught.”

Lin, 38, and Xu, 39, were each granted a stay of imposition under their plea agreements with county prosecutors. That would allow their felony convictions to be deemed misdemeanors if they pay restitution and successfully complete a year of unsupervised probation.

A third person charged in the case, 39-year-old Su Ling Cao, will see both of her felony charges dismissed if she does not have any same or similar offenses in the next year.

The owners were not available for comment when the News Tribune contacted the restaurant on Tuesday.

A Roseville man is accused of fatally stabbing a 19-year-old father of two outside a South St. Paul townhouse in 2017.

Daniel Anthony Cruz Hernandez, 20, was charged Tuesday with one count of murder and one count of aggravated robbery in the death of Jordan Paredes, according to a criminal complaint filed in Dakota County court.

Hernandez made his first appearance in a Hastings courtroom on Wednesday; his next hearing is scheduled for May 22, according to a news release issued by the Dakota County Attorney’s Office.

“This appears to be another senseless crime of violence which has claimed a life in our community,” Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said in his office’s release.

No attorney for Hernandez was listed in court documents.

On Aug. 2, 2017, South St. Paul police responded about 3:15 a.m. to a report of a disturbance in the 400 block of Camber Avenue, where they found Paredes unconscious and suffering from an apparent stab wound. Paredes died at the hospital a short time later.

Paredes and another man, identified in court documents as “E.D.,” had just left a townhouse in the Camber Hills Townhomes complex with a backpack “full of about 100 grams of weed,” when they encountered Hernandez and his brother in the street, along with two females in a van, according to the criminal complaint.

Hernandez told investigators that Paredes and E.D. asked one of the females in the van for a ride and began to argue with her when she refused, the complaint said. Hernandez allegedly told police that he and his brother only intervened to break up the fight.

The eight-month investigation came to an end when an informant, who is not identified in court documents, contacted law enforcement on March 28 and told investigators that Hernandez had admitted to stabbing Paredes after Paredes had “been hitting on” one of the females in the van, according to the complaint.

Investigators discovered traces of Paredes’ blood on the center console of Hernandez’s car and found photos of Paredes’ marijuana on a mobile phone belonging to Hernandez’s brother, the complaint said.

A shooting incident in Minneapolis left six injured on Wednesday night, according to police.

At about 7:45 p.m., officers responded to a report of a shooting on the 2400 block of Ogema Place.

They found six victims with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries. All were transported to Hennepin County Medical Center. One of those hospitalized is a juvenile.

Three individuals are in custody related to the incident, police said. No other suspects are being sought.

The incident remains under investigation.

The son of a southeastern Minnesota woman suspected of fatally shooting her husband then killing a Florida woman and stealing her identity says she is a “good lady” but “had her own demons” including a gambling addiction, according to an interview to be aired Thursday.

Braden Riess, 30, discussed his mother, Lois Riess, 56, in an interview with the syndicated news program “Inside Edition.”

Authorities say Lois Riess killed her husband, David Riess, 54, at their Blooming Prairie home in March. She then headed to Fort Myers Beach in Florida where authorities say she shot and killed 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson last month so she could assume her identity. Authorities arrested Riess at a restaurant bar in the Texas resort town of South Padre Island late last month at the end of a long manhunt. She’ll stand trial in Florida first.

On Thursday, a Lee County, Fla., judge ruled that Riess should remain in jail without bond. She waived her right to appear at the hearing.

Braden Riess told “Inside Edition” that he and his siblings were devastated to learn of the allegations that his mother killed their father and Hutchinson.

“It’s unbelievable, like, I don’t know. I can’t wrap my head around it. My mom was a good lady,” he said.

He said he never thought his mother would do anything to harm his father. He described the couple as close and loving, and said she always put her kids first.

“It’s a bad movie,” he said. “I feel like I’m going to wake up and it’s going to be, you know, back to normal. But it’s not.”

Lois Riess has a history of stealing money and gambling. Authorities dubbed her “Losing Streak Lois” for her habit of frequenting casinos.

Braden Riess said she must have suffered a mental breakdown.

“She had her own demons, you know, lately, I guess, the last few years, you know, to gambling addiction, was dealing with that,” he said. “And something happened in her brain, like, made her snap.”

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — A mother and her three children were found dead Thursday inside a northeastern North Dakota home, and police said their deaths were apparent homicides and a suicide.

Police said 35-year-old Astra Volk and her children, 14-year-old Tyler Talmage, 10-year-old Aidan Talmage and 6-year-old Arianna Talmage all had gunshot wounds. A handgun was found at the scene in Grand Forks and no suspects were being sought.

Police went to the home Thursday morning after administrators at Lewis and Clark Elementary School asked police to check on the family. The responding officer saw what appeared to be a body inside the home on Grand Forks’ south side and went in.

Grand Forks Public Schools said in a statement that families were notified and it was working with the schools the children attended to provide support and counseling to students and staff.

Paula Stevens, 58, who lives two doors down from the house where the four were found, said the family had moved into the house just a couple months ago.

“Three little kids and their mom — oh my goodness,” she said.

Stevens said the house “sat empty forever” until it was recently renovated and the woman was living there as a renter. Stevens said she rarely saw the family because the woman worked odd hours and the long winter kept the kids indoors.

“This is scary,” Stevens said. “Now I want to watch out for my neighbors and make sure they’re OK.”

Stevens and others described the neighborhood as a safe, quiet residential area. The house where the family was found was surrounded by crime tape on Thursday. The garage door was opened more than halfway, and a pink child’s bicycle was overturned in the yard.

“It’s a little frightening because Grand Forks is supposed to be like a safe town, a place where you can keep your doors unlocked,” said Caralyne Ronai, a senior at the University of North Dakota who was walking through the neighborhood. “Four dead is upsetting to hear.”

TROUBLES REPORTED

The Forum News Service reported that a troubled picture had emerged of the Volk household. Just over a week ago, Volk had posted a plea for monetary assistance to fundraising site GoFundMe, seeking help in a post titled “Living expenses due to medical bills.”

In the post, Volk said she and her two sons “suffer from mental illness, bi-polar, manic depression, autism” and that all had been “hospitalized for this.”

“I work full time but my wages have recently been garnished for medical bills,” she wrote. “I’m looking for help with 1 month’s bills to help get on our feet and look for a second job. I am trying to stay positive so I do not end up back in the hospital.”

Volk, who said on social media that she worked at Cirrus Aircraft, said the family was getting help from food pantries.

Court records show Volk had been in civil court three times in the past year for collections totaling to $3,700.

Neighbors believed she was living alone with the children and was separated from her husband and their father.

About half an hour after closing time, a St. Paul man walked into a bar on Arcade Street last winter and tried to order a drink.

When the bartender at Vogel’s Lounge told John Wesley Dornfeld that the East Side establishment was done serving alcohol for the night, the 25-year-old took matters into his own hands, authorities say.

Dornfeld lunged across the bar that night on Feb. 9 and tried to grab a bottle of alcohol, causing the bartender and other patrons to detain him, according to the criminal complaint filed against him Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.

He was subsequently thrown out of the bar when staff noted Dornfeld had a knife in his pocket, the complaint says.

That’s when authorities say the incident escalated.

The damage cost more than $10,000 to repair.

Dornfeld declined to make a statement to investigators after his arrest.

He faces one count of first-degree criminal damage to property for the alleged conduct.

Dornfeld’s attorney, Nicole Kettwick, declined to comment on the allegations as she hadn’t been able to review the complaint.

Dornfeld’s criminal record includes mostly traffic violations. He was also convicted of petty misdemeanor drug possession in 2014.

He was expected to make his first court appearance in the case Thursday afternoon.

The trial of a Willernie man charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of his fiancee’s toddler has been postponed a second time.

The trial of Jonathon Wierstad, 28, who is being held in the Washington County Jail, will begin Aug. 6 in Washington County district court. Bail has been set at $2 million with conditions.

Wierstad’s trial was set for February, but was continued to May 7 at the request of Wierstad’s attorneys. The defense requested another continuance last month because they are waiting for an expert opinion and additional discovery, said Assistant Washington County Attorney Siv Yurichuk.

“The court made it clear that this would be the last continuance and that they needed to be ready to go to trial in August,” she said.

Wierstad called 911 in May 2017 to report that his fiancee’s toddler had fallen down a small set of carpeted stairs at their house in Willernie and was having trouble breathing.

He was arrested later that night and charged with first-degree assault with great bodily harm after doctors at Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul said the 16-month-old’s injuries were not consistent with a fall down stairs.

After the toddler died June 3, Wierstad was charged with murder.

For the fourth year in a row, citations for texting while behind the wheel climbed during Minnesota’s annual distracted driving campaign.

Officers, deputies and troopers cited 1,576 motorists for texting and driving during the recent two-week campaign, compared with 1,017 cited during last year’s campaign.

That was a 54 percent increase.

There were also 1,883 seat belt citations, compared with 1,517 in 2017.

The St. Paul Police Department reported the most violations, citing 171 motorists for seat belt violations or distracted driving — more citations than any other participating department in the state.

One St. Paul motorist was playing Pokemon Go while driving. Another was using an iPad to reset a password. A third told police she was “addicted to her phone” after getting cited twice in a row at the same location.

Texting violations have increased steadily since 2012, contributing to an average of nearly 60 distracted driving deaths each year from 2012 to 2016, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

More than 300 law enforcement agencies participated during the extra enforcement campaign from April 9-22.

First-time violators receive a $50 fine plus court fees. The second violation merits a $275 fine and court fees.

URBANA, Ill. — A federal grand jury in central Illinois on Wednesday returned a superseding indictment that brings additional charges against four men previously indicted on weapons charges — three of whom are awaiting trial in a Twin Cities mosque bombing case.

Michael Hari, 47, Michael McWhorter, 29, Joe Morris, 22, and Ellis Mack, 18, now are also charged with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by threats and violence. Hari, McWhorter and Morris also are charged with attempted arson, and Hari is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon.

It wasn’t immediately known if the men have lawyers representing them on the new charges.

Hari, McWhorter and Morris are charged in Minnesota with bombing the Dar al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington last August. The explosion caused fire damage, but no injuries.

The indictment from the grand jury in Springfield alleges the three men and Mack conspired from August 2017 to March 10, 2018, to affect commerce by robbery and extortion. The men allegedly robbed or attempted to rob Walmart stores in Illinois, attempted to extort Canadian National Railway by threatening to damage tracks in Illinois if the railroad didn’t pay ransom, and robbed or attempted to rob individuals in Indiana suspected of being involved in drug trafficking.

The indictment also alleges that in November 2017, Hari, McWhorter and Morris attempted to damage the Women’s Health Practice in Champaign, Ill., using fire and explosives.

Prosecutors contend the four formed a militia group that eventually identified itself as the “White Rabbits.” According to the indictment, the group obtained materials used to make explosives, provided weapons and uniforms to group members, and assigned ranks to its members. Prosecutors allege the materials and other items belonging to the group were kept in a building in Clarence, Ill.

Hari, Morris, McWhorter and Mack are all from Clarence. All four have been ordered to remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

A St. Paul man who repeatedly stabbed a woman in the head, face, side and stomach at a downtown St. Paul homeless shelter is heading to prison.

Ramsey County District Court Judge Thomas Gilligan Wednesday sentenced Tim Davin Dortch to nearly 20 years for the attack, which took place in January of 2017, court records say.

Dortch was convicted of second-degree attempted murder as well as first and second-degree assault following a court trial this past February.

Dortch assaulted the victim at the Dorothy Day Center, stabbing her five times and hitting an artery near her liver. The injuries required emergency surgery but the woman survived.

Witnesses said that they initially thought Dortch was punching the woman and didn’t realize she was being stabbed until later. The incident was prompted by a disagreement between the victim and Dortch’s girlfriend, according to legal documents.

The woman told the judge Thursday that she is still haunted by the attack. She suffers anxiety attacks and is fearful of traveling on public transportation, going shopping or riding on elevators, she wrote in her victim impact statement.

Her face and body are marked by scars and she lives with persistent headaches, she said.

“I don’t even know this man … (For him to) attack me, a total stranger, from behind, with such cruel actions is unimaginable,” she wrote. “I live in constant fear that the defendant will get out of prison and finish me off.”

Dortch’s attorney, public defender Connie Iverson, could not be immediately reached for comment.

A man who robbed the TCF Bank branch in Fridley a decade ago has been arrested for robbing it again, police say.

Sixty-year-old Steven Walter Smialek is in federal custody after being arrested Wednesday afternoon in Columbia Heights on suspicion of first-degree aggravated robbery, according to a news release issued Thursday by the Fridley Police Department. He has not yet been charged, the news release said.

About 11 a.m. on March 10, a middle-aged man entered the TCF Bank on Central Avenue and gave a teller a note demanding money and indicating that he had a gun, according to a Sun Focus report.

The suspect was described as a white man with red hair and a short red beard, wearing wire-rim glasses with tinted lenses and a stocking cap, the report said. He left with about $4,500 in cash.

In early 2009, Smialek was sentenced to more than five years in prison for a nearly identical 2008 robbery of the same bank, though he only made off with $1,540 in that heist.

Smialek’s criminal history also includes another pair of bank robberies in 1980 and 1995, according to the Fridley police press release.