A man who did several odd-jobs for an elderly woman in St. Paul is now charged with her murder, charges say.

Richard Daniel Thomas Joles, 26, was charged Monday with two counts of second-degree murder in the death of Myong “Susie” Gossel, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Ramsey County District Court.

His acquaintance, Kevin Reek, 46, faces the same charges in her death.

Gossel, 79, was found Jan. 4 by two friends who went to her house on the 2300 block of Nokomis Avenue to check on her after failing to hear from her for a couple days.

The husband and wife arrived at the home near Beaver Lake on St. Paul’s Greater East Side to find Gossel’s mail uncollected and her front-door ajar. Once inside, they discovered the house had been ransacked. One of them found Gossel lying battered, bruised and partially clothed on the laundry room floor, the complaints say.

Medics pronounced her dead at the scene. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner ruled Gossel’s death a homicide due to closed-head trauma.

Investigators discovered a fingerprint on a jewelry box inside the home that was eventually traced to Joles. Joles had reportedly done odd jobs for Gossel in the past, including tree removal and work on a retaining wall, court documents say.

Later interviewed by police, Joles said the elderly woman paid him about $9,000 for the retaining wall and another $3,000 for removing trees from her property.

She even once invited him into her home for soup, he told police, charges say.

The Texas native, who was living in Indiana at the time of the incident, allegedly admitted to police that he and Reek drove to Minnesota after the New Year to do a “job.”

He went on to tell officers that he was worried he had “tapped” Gossel too many times for work and that he needed Reek to serve as a “new face.” He added that Reek could do foundation work so he thought the two could team up and offer that service to her, the complaint said.

After things went awry between Reek and Joles at a truck stop in Wisconsin, he said he and a different acquaintance took Reek’s truck and left him temporarily behind. The two drove to Gossel’s home together instead, Joles told police.

He said they arrived around 8 a.m. Jan. 2 and left after Gossel gave them $350.

When pressed, Joles later admitted to returning to Gossel’s house a second time a few hours later, that time with Reek in tow. Reek reportedly wanted to be dropped off in back of her house where he planned to “pretend” to be shoveling, Joles told police, charges say.

Concerned, Joles said he told Reek it “wasn’t a good idea.” He said the two parted ways later that day.

When officers told him Gossel had been found dead, Joles pointed the finger at Reek, saying, among other things, that Reek had previously been charged with “tying people up” and doing other “bad stuff,” the complaint said. He added that Reek had been high on drugs.

Joles on-and-off-again girlfriend told police Joles had done work for a “Chinese lady” in Minnesota over the summer and that he and Reek left her trailer in Indiana Jan. 1 to reportedly go do another job for her.

The workers reportedly showed back up at her house around Christmas and stole money from her, the couple told officers.

They said Gossel declined to report the incident because they just took money and didn’t hurt her.

Reek was arrested in Illinois Jan. 12 on a probation violation and is awaiting extradition to Minnesota on the murder charges.

When questioned by St. Paul police, he reportedly denied being in Minnesota at the time of Gossel’s death and declined to comment further without an attorney present, charges say.

Susie Gossel and her husband, who were married for 37 years, owned their home on Nokomis Avenue near Geranium Avenue since 1974. She’d been living alone since he died in 2011.

Gossel retired from a job at the old Gillette factory in downtown St. Paul and remained active. She enjoyed quilting, crocheting and cooking.

Her relatives are glad to have more answers about what happened to her but are still in shock, said Vivian Gossel, her sister-in-law.

“It’s still very hard for us to understand a motive to (kill) somebody who was so kind and pleasant and friendly,” Vivian Gossel said.

Both Reek and Joles have criminal histories.

In 2007, Reek and two other people tied up an elderly couple in their home and robbed them, according to his criminal complaint.

Nearly a year ago, Joles was charged in Madison County, Illinois with aggravated home repair fraud. He allegedly went to an elderly man’s home unsolicited and told the owner the “township” had sent him to look at his roof, according to the Madison County sheriff’s office.

He then told the man he owed him an “exorbitant amount” for needed repairs.

Lt. Kristopher Tharp, of the Madison County sheriff’s office, said Monday that he’d heard about the case in St. Paul.

“It’s very sad,” he said. “Any act against the elderly is despicable, but when it results in violence it’s even more heartbreaking.”

Joles’ criminal history also includes drug possession convictions. He also pleaded guilty in April to aiding and abetting financial transaction card fraud in Dakota County in 2011.

He is custody in Hennepin County.

Both Reek and Joles were charged via warrants.

The man accused of shooting five men protesting the death of a black man by Minneapolis police has testified he was acting in self-defense.

Twenty-four-year-old Allen Scarsella took the witness stand Monday and said a group of protesters were shouting threats at him as he walked away from the larger demonstration outside the 4th Precinct station in November 2015. Scarsella says a protester had already punched him in the face and he feared the men intended to hurt him some more, so he fired in self-defense.

Minnesota Public Radio News reports Scarsella testified he fired first at a man holding what he thought was a knife and couldn’t remember how many shots he fired.

Prosecutors allege Scarsella, who is white, shot and wounded five black men protesting the shooting death of Jamar Clark by Minneapolis police.

A Twin Cities man has pleaded guilty to financial exploitation after he wheeled his invalid mother into a bank to withdraw money hours before she died two years ago.

David John Vanzo, 59, of Plymouth pleaded guilty to one count of financial exploitation over $35,000, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Monday.

“We are pleased with the guilty plea today from Mr. Vanzo,” Freeman said in a statement. “It is hard to comprehend how a son could be so greedy as to pack his obviously ailing mother into a taxi and push her into the bank just to obtain a few more dollars. He was her primary care provider and he failed at that, as well. Our office will continue to aggressively prosecute cases like these where people exploit a vulnerable adult.”

Vanzo was scheduled to go on trial Monday morning but opted to plead guilty.

According to the criminal complaint, Vanzo began living with his mother in 2007. He was granted power of attorney over her finances in 2012. From then until his mother died in January 2015, Vanzo took about $260,000 from his mother’s financial accounts and through a reverse mortgage on her house.

According to the complaint, he called police late Jan. 5, 2015, to report that his mother had died. When officers arrived at the home, which “smelled overwhelmingly of urine and feces,” they found Vanzo’s mother lying dead on a soiled bed, still wearing a coat and boots.

Bank employees told investigators Vanzo’s mother was slumped over, unresponsive and dragging her feet when Vanzo pushed her wheelchair out the door that afternoon after making an $850 withdrawal from her account, according to the complaint. The taxi driver who brought Vanzo and his mother to the bank said he took Vanzo to Buffalo Wild Wings immediately after Vanzo brought his mother inside the house.

He will be sentenced Feb. 21 and is expected to receive 42 months in prison.

VIRGINIA, Minn. — Just six days before she was gunned down outside an Aurora bar in November 2015, Julie Ann Hildreth submitted a victim impact statement in a domestic abuse case against the man who would soon kill her.

In that case, John Joseph Plevell was being sentenced for disorderly conduct after authorities said he struck Hildreth with a telephone and a full beer can.

 “I don’t want him to do this to another female,” Hildreth wrote in part. “This is the worst thing I’ve gone through in my entire life.”

Less than a week later, Plevell lay in wait with a deer rifle equipped with a scope and fired a single shot at Hildreth from 50 to 60 feet away, ending her life.

“She was ready to take back her spirit,” Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Michelle Anderson said. “Then, on Nov. 8, 2015, the defendant silenced her forever.”

Hildreth’s victim impact statement was read in court by her sister on Monday. Hildreth’s two daughters, mother and boyfriend also addressed St. Louis County District Judge Gary Pagliaccetti during an emotional, hourlong hearing in Virginia.

In accordance with a plea agreement, Plevell was sentenced to 35 years in prison on an intentional second-degree murder conviction.

Plevell, 52, of Aurora, accepted the above-guideline term last month, admitting that he fatally shot Hildreth, a 49-year-old Babbitt native, when he became jealous after seeing her in the bar with her new boyfriend.

“Bang! That’s the last thing my mother heard before she passed away because you decided to pull the trigger,” Jessica Harris-Bennett, 30, told Plevell at the sentencing hearing. “You hurt so many people through your selfish actions.”

Sobs emitted from the crowded courtroom throughout the hearing as friends and family members approached the podium one by one to speak about the loss of their loved one.

“My mother was a bright person,” recalled daughter Kaylee Hildreth, 25. “She could light up a room just by walking into it.”

Hildreth worked for much of her life in the nursing and personal care attendant fields, said her mother, Janice Harris. She was widowed by age 40 and moved to South Carolina to be closer to her daughter Jessica.

Hildreth later returned to the Iron Range, taking on a job helping her disabled brother, Eugene, in Hibbing, and was making plans to move there, Harris said.

“He was so happy to have her working with him,” Harris said.

Hildreth had been in a relationship with Plevell for about a year and a half and had lived with him at one point. They reportedly ended their relationship about three months before she was killed.

Hildreth had an active order for protection out against Plevell and had told law enforcement that she believed he could kill her because the violence was escalating, according to documents.

A bullet struck Hildreth in the right forearm and entered her chest as she stood outside the American Legion Club around 9 p.m. She was transported to Essentia Health-Northern Pines hospital, where she died a short time later.

Hildreth’s boyfriend, Randy Mattson, told police he and Hildreth were outside the bar smoking. When they went to re-enter the building, he heard what sounded like a deer rifle shot and saw Hildreth drop to the ground, according to a criminal complaint.

Plevell admitted at his Dec. 20 plea hearing that he became jealous upon seeing the couple and left to retrieve the rifle, hiding behind a shed and some brush until Hildreth emerged from the bar.

Defense attorney Bruce Williams said his client was accepting responsibility for the crime and not blaming alcohol.

“What has been taken from the Hildreth family cannot be given back,” Williams said. “He understands that.”

Plevell was emotional throughout the hearing, using a tissue to wipe tears from his eyes, and issued an apology.

“Truly, there are no words that can adequately express the remorse and sorrow I feel for the loss of Julie,” he told the court. “I can only hope and pray that they can one day find it in their hearts to forgive me.”

Plevell is required to serve at least two-thirds of the sentence — a little more than 23 years — with the remainder of the time to be served on supervised release.

And while he received a finite prison term, Harris-Bennett said life would never be the same for her family.

“You took away our sunshine,” she said. “I’ve cried so much in the past year, I have no more tears.”

Mattson described the scene of the shooting, comparing the sound of the gunshot to an M-80 explosive and saying he could not believe that his girlfriend would be gunned down on the street.

“I just wanted Julie to be happy and love me forever,” Mattson said.

Anderson, the prosecutor, thanked law enforcement and commended Hildreth’s family for what she described as “tremendous courage.”

“Memories of Julie will no longer be associated with John Plevell,” Anderson said. “Rather, she will be remembered for her strength and smile.”

At least 21 people died as a result of domestic violence in the state last year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women.

In one-third of the cases, children were present when their mother was killed or when her body was discovered, according to the 2016 Femicide Report. Two of the 21 victims were children — 10-year-old Nahily Ronquillo and 13-year-old Luis Ronquillo, fatally shot by their father in Minneapolis in September as he attempted to kill their mother.

“The trauma of children witnessing violence cannot be understated,” said Erica Staab-Absher, executive director of HOPE Center in Faribault, speaking at the release of the annual report in St. Paul. She pointed to the case of Courtney Monson, 30, from Ramsey in April.

Monson’s four children, ages 2 to 12, were at their house at the time of her shooting. She took refuge with three of them in her basement when her husband shot her multiple times before killing himself.

“Her children begged for their lives after watching their mother shot dead,” Staab-Absher said. “Her 12-year-old son held his 2-year-old sister and ran to safety as his mother was being murdered. In the past five years, over 150 children have lost their mother due to domestic violence.”

The Femicide Report recommends family court and child protective services should assess for domestic violence and their responses should take violence into account.

The 21 homicides recorded in the report released Tuesday include 18 women who were killed by a current or former intimate partner, two family members and one bystander. The 2015 Femicide Report documented 34 cases.

“We do not diminish the lives lost by describing greater or lesser numbers as a trend,” said Becky Smith, Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women’s program manager for public awareness. “In fact, throughout the 28 years of the Femicide Report, the number of victims murdered due to domestic violence has consistently remained in the double digits.”

About 80 percent of female homicide victims in Minnesota between 2005 and 2015 died in domestic violence cases, according to the coalition.

In last year’s instances, at least five of the perpetrators had documented histories of past abuse, Smith said. Antonio St. Marie, who is charged with murder in the shooting of his wife in Wadena in November, “has a long documented history,” she said.

In 2009, St. Marie threatened to kill an ex-girlfriend’s family members and was convicted of terroristic threats, notes the report. In 2011, St. Marie threatened to kill another ex-girlfriend, choked her, and assaulted her and other relatives with a knife; he was convicted of felony domestic assault.

Last November, St. Marie was charged with felony domestic against his wife, 27-year-old Margaret St. Marie. He bailed out of jail, then went and held St. Marie, their 3-year-old, and his wife’s brother “hostage as he threatened them with a firearm,” according to the report.

A few hours later, when Margaret St. Marie pleaded with Antonio St. Marie to let her brother leave with her child, “after she hugged her brother and child good-bye, Antonio shot and killed her,” the report continued, noting a domestic abuse no-contact order was in effect at the time.

“We need the criminal justice system to engage in a process that demands serious change for batterers,” Smith said. “Without addressing the root causes of abuse and changing perpetrators’ behavior, there will always be another victim.”

BISMARCK, N.D. — A flight attendant accused of making fake bomb threats on two Skywest flights in the U.S. in 2015 is negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors and likely won’t stand trial.

Justin Cox-Sever, of Tempe, Arizona, is accused of making the threats on a July 2015 flight from Charlottesville, Virginia, to Chicago, and on a September 2015 flight from Minneapolis to Dickinson, North Dakota.

In the first incident, the plane had to turn around midflight and the second resulted in the temporary shutdown of the Dickinson airport. Emergencies were declared in both cases. No injuries were reported.

Cox-Sever had been expected to stand trial beginning Tuesday in North Dakota, but U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland approved a delay until Feb. 28. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Delorme said in court documents that the two sides anticipate filing a plea agreement before then. It would resolve both cases.

Cox-Sever’s trial has been delayed eight times, due in large part to the fact that he’s charged in federal court in North Dakota and Virginia. He could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted at trial on charges related to interfering with an aircraft.

Federal Public Defender Neil Fulton did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday on why the defense is pursuing a plea deal rather than taking the case to trial.

Cox-Sever is no longer employed by SkyWest. The airline won’t say whether he quit or was fired.

A St. Paul teenager faces murder charges after the infant she was baby-sitting died of injuries suffered while in her care.

Tyanna Jabree Graham, 19, was charged Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court with unintentional second-degree murder in the death of the 5-month-old boy.

Police responded to a home on the 2200 block of West Seventh Street early Saturday morning on a report that a child wasn’t breathing.

The boy was taken by ambulance to Children’s Hospital, where doctors determined that he had suffered a severe brain injury. The boy’s “eyes were dilated and he was completely unresponsive,” the complaint said.

The child, Jamir P. Dunagan, died Sunday.

The Ramsey County medical examiner’s office determined that traumatic head injuries due to “physical assault” that caused bleeding in his brain were to blame. The boy also had bruises and bleeding on his left lung and a cut on his lip.

“These injuries are classic findings for abusive head trauma and child abuse,” according to the complaint.

When interviewed by police, Graham gave conflicting accounts, according to the criminal complaint filed against her.

First, she said the child had fallen from a couch and was having trouble breathing when she called 911, the complaint said. Later, she said his injuries may have occurred when she dropped him after tripping over a ball.

She eventually admitted being frustrated that she had to care for the child when she wanted to go out and might have “blacked out” and shaken him for 3 to 5 seconds while she was in that state, the complaint says.

Police examined her cellphone and found text messages sent Friday that illustrated her frustration.

One read, “I’m getting irritated my baby keeps waking up. He being a big … crybaby … I am been dealing with (this) all day I just closed the door but I still hear him and it’s irritating me I never let him cry.”

Graham has no criminal record in Minnesota.

She cried as she made her first court appearance on the charges Tuesday afternoon.

Her sister was in the courtroom, along with several of the infant’s relatives, including his mother, Whitney Dunagan, according to Dunagan’s cousin, Genevieve Hyatt.

Hyatt said the family is feeling angry, confused and heartbroken over Jamir’s death.

“He was the happiest baby. … He was always smiling, talking … he lit up a whole room,” Hyatt said. “He never cried … that’s why I don’t understand how this happened.”

She said she often watched the boy for his mother and wasn’t sure why Graham was caring for him at the time of his death.

She described Graham as a friend of her daughter’s and said she didn’t know her very well.

Jamir is Whitney Dunagan’s only child, Hyatt added.

“Sometimes she’s out of it, sometimes she’s crying, sometimes she’s trying to smile,” Hyatt said of how the young mother is coping. “She just wants justice for her baby.”

Graham’s sister Candice Kelly apologized to Dunagan’s family as she left the courtroom after the hearing Tuesday afternoon.

She later told a reporter that she’s shocked by the charges and hasn’t been able to talk to her sister, who she said struggles with mental health and other issues.

She said her sister needs to have her mental capacity evaluated before the case moves forward.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think she could do something like this. … My sister loves babies,” Kelly said. “If she did this, then she did a horrible thing and she will pay for it … but she needs help.”

The boy’s death marks the third homicide in St. Paul this year.

‘PREVENTABLE’ TRAGEDY

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi described the infant’s death as an “absolutely preventable” tragedy.

“My heartfelt condolences are with this baby’s mother and family as they grieve the loss of their child,” Choi said. “This is an unthinkable tragedy and one that is absolutely preventable if caregivers only reach out to a counseling resource.”

He recommended overwhelmed caregivers in need of help reach out to the Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery at 763-591-0100.

The organization offers parents and guardians 24-hour crisis counseling via it’s hotline, in-person counseling at its facility, up to three days of respite care for children as their guardians regroup, as well as at-home visits to help parents and guardians overcome barriers to care for children.

The latter resources are just available to residents of Hennepin County but staff at the center can help connect outside residents with other resources, said Jennifer Harrison, the nursery’s development and communications director.

She added that the hotline is available to all.

“In this case, it appears the woman was escalating in some fashion. … We would hope at that time a (guardian) would call us and talk to us about what they are feeling so we can help normalize the situation … make them feel like they are not alone, and talk about what is going on and what solutions are available,” Harrison said.

The Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery is the only of its kind in the state and one of only 20 in the country.

The Minnesota Department of Health does not regularly track the number of children severely injured or killed from being shaken or suffering abusive head trauma, but it appears to be rare, said Susan Castellano, maternal and child health director for the agency.

The scant available data comes from hospital reports, death records and traumatic brain-injury registries.

“So of course if you have a baby that you have shaken and only has mild impairment and is never brought to a doctor, then of course we don’t know about that. … So how prevalent it is? It’s really hard to say,” Castellano said.

Shaking an infant or inflicting trauma to a child’s head can cause long-term health impacts, including vision and hearing problems, developmental delays, physical disabilities and death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Castellano said that the leading causes of infant mortality in Minnesota are premature birth, unsafe sleep environments and birth defects.

Guardians in need can also call the state’s Crisis Connection for help at 612-379-6363.

The CDC offers the following advice to overwhelmed caregivers.

The Hennepin County attorney has charged a 24-year-old man with second-degree murder in the death of Steve Parker Sr., who was found dead in Minneapolis garage Sunday afternoon.

Rondell Russell Camp, 24, allegedly killed Parker, a neighborhood mechanic, while Parker was working on the defendant’s vehicle, the charges said.

According to a criminal complaint, police and paramedics found Camp with a leg wound in an alley on the 3700 block of Aldrich Ave. N. He was said to be crawling, “screaming and in great pain.”

The man had numerous cuts to his head, broken bones in his face, a large stab wound on the left side of his neck beneath his ear and numerous defensive wounds to both hands, the complaint said.

Authorities also found a large pool of blood beneath Parker’s head, a wrench under his shoulder and blood spatters on the nearby car and other surfaces.

“(Camp) had no apparent injuries that were consistent with the amount of blood on his hands, face and clothing,” according to the complaint.

Witnesses told police they heard a loud argument inside the garage, where Parker repaired cars, and later heard Camp screaming in pain in the alley.

Police accompanied Camp to the hospital for treatment of his leg wound. He was in custody Tuesday and expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon.

A “juvenile female” was in custody after she fatally stabbed an adult male relative in Minneapolis on Tuesday night, police said.

The girl was being evaluated at an area hospital and “will be booked into the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center for probable cause murder,” according to a statement from Minneapolis police.

Her age, name and relationship to the man were not available Tuesday evening.

The stabbing was reported around 4:50 p.m. in the 3200 block of Sixth Street North.

According to the police statement: “When officers arrived they located an adult male victim that had been stabbed. The victim was transported to North Memorial Medical Center (NMMC) by paramedics. The male died a short time later.”

The statement continues: “Officers from the Fourth Precinct will be in the neighborhood tomorrow talking with neighbors about this incident. Anyone with information is encouraged to speak with these officers.”

People can also call the department tip line at 612-692-TIPS (8477).

A Blaine man will spend two years on probation for intentionally treating a Chihuahua in a cruel manner, resulting in the dog’s death.

David W. Anderson, 48, pleaded no contest Monday in Eau Claire County Court to a felony count of mistreatment of animals.

As conditions of probation, Judge Paul Lenz ordered Anderson to pay $558 in restitution, have no contact with the dog’s owner and undergo any counseling, treatment or programming recommended by his probation agent.

“I had to put him down as a result of the injuries he received from David Anderson,” the owner told Lenz.

“I didn’t do anything without him,” she said of her dog, Virgil. “He went everywhere I did. He was never left alone at all.”

Virgil was just a small Chihuahua, the victim said. “He never did anything wrong,” she said.

Lenz backed up the victim’s comments.

“What you did was, you took away this person’s companion,” the judge told Anderson.

According to the criminal complaint:

An Eau Claire woman met with police on Feb. 28 and told an officer she had been allowing Anderson to temporarily stay at her residence in the 2300 block of Golf Road. She said the night before she had fallen asleep but woke up around 12:30 a.m. Anderson was in a bad mood, so she left the residence.

At about 1:45 a.m., the woman said she received a text message from Anderson indicating something was wrong with Virgil, her 7-year-old Chihuahua. She immediately returned home and found the dog lying on the living room floor almost lifeless.

She told the officer she noticed a bump on the dog’s head, and Anderson told her the dog had fallen off the couch.

A short time later, she took the dog to Oakwood Hills Animal Hospital, where X-rays revealed Virgil had a skull fracture — an injury not consistent with the animal falling off a couch onto a carpeted floor. The veterinarian said there was nothing more to do other than to euthanize the animal. He was euthanized that day.

Five weeks earlier, the woman returned home from work and noticed the dog was having difficulty jumping onto the couch, something it had never had trouble doing before. She also noticed blood in the animal’s left eye.

On Feb. 29, the woman reported to police that Anderson had sent her unwanted messages. In one he called her a “rat” for contacting police about the dog.

A driver suspected of being intoxicated drove his SUV across the center line of a highway in Benton County Tuesday evening and smashed into another vehicle killing a 35-year-old wife and mother, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

The woman’s three young children, in the vehicle with her, were injured in the crash. The driver and his passenger in the SUV also received life-threatening injuries, according to the State Patrol.

The State Patrol said that a 2004 GMC Yukon being driven westbound on Highway 23 at 11th Avenue in Foley at about 6 p.m. Tuesday by Kevin Gordon Couch, 29, of Milaca, crossed the center line and hit a 2000 Chevrolet Tahoe being driven by Lindsay Marie Cardinal, 35, of Foreston, Minn. Cardinal was killed in the crash.

Couch was suspected of being under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both, according to the State Patrol. He was wearing a seat belt but suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash and was taken to North Memorial Medical Center, according to the State Patrol. Charges may be filed against him following an investigation, according to the State Patrol.

According to court records, Couch has a lengthy criminal record that includes convictions for burglary, fleeing a police officer, drug possession, assault, domestic assault, domestic abuse, violating a no-contact order and two driving while intoxicated charges.

A passenger in the Yukon, Nicole Dawn Schmidt, 24, of Milaca, also received life-threatening injuries and was taken to the North Memorial Medical Center. An airbag deployed on the Yukon, but Schmidt was not wearing a seat belt, according to the State Patrol.

Cardinal and her three children with her were all wearing seat belts, according to the state patrol.

A GoFundMe page set up for the family said Evelyn Jo Cardinal, 1; Wyatt James Cardinal, 4; and Lillian Rose Cardinal, 5, were taken to St. Cloud Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

“Lindsay was a wonderful woman, with a contagious smile,” according to the GoFundMe page. “The Cardinal Family has a long road ahead of them.”

The GoFundMe page had raised more than $7,000 Wednesday morning toward a $20,000 goal.

“If you can not afford to donate but want to help, please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you!” the GoFundMe page said.

Visitation will be held Thursday for Senicha Marie Lessman and her unborn son, who were killed last week in Eagan.

The visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. at O’Halloran & Murphy Funeral Home, 575 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.

Lessman, who was 25 and eight months pregnant, and the child died Jan. 24 from a knife attack, allegedly by the baby’s father, Vern Jason Mouelle, 23, of Brooklyn Park. Mouelle has been charged with second-degree murder with intent and second-degree murder of an unborn child.

Lessman was born Senicha Zdravokova Tzoneva in northeastern Bulgaria, according to her obituary on the funeral home’s website. Her birth parents had migrated from Turkey, and she lived in two orphanages before coming to the United States at age 6. She was adopted by Margi Lessman at age 9. 

Senicha Lessman lettered in track and basketball at Arlington High School in St. Paul, according to the obituary. After moving to Eagan, she graduated from Burnsville High School.

She worked at Old Navy and Panda Express in Eagan for the past 15 months and “learned a lot about herself and how to be strong and independent,” the obituary read.

She had a named picked out for her son — Logan — and was “thrilled beyond belief to be pregnant and was so excited to be a mom,” the obituary read.

No funeral service is planned.

Maplewood Police Chief Paul Schnell — who in the past year has both clashed with the state’s most powerful police union and worked hard to debate police culture in the wake of the Philando Castile shooting — told city officials this week that he hopes to leave his job by the end of the year.

Schnell, who has been chief for about 3 1/2 years, said he does not have another job lined up, but there were “a couple things I’m interested in pursuing,” on which he would not elaborate.

But it won’t be a police job: Schnell, 55, said he intends to leave law enforcement. He did not say why he was choosing to leave this year; originally Schnell said he would stay for three to five years.

“The role of police chief is a unique job — you have an obligation to the department, to your bosses, and a big obligation to the community,” Schnell said.

Over the past year, that’s been a difficult balance.

“It may not always be popular to create connections with groups or organizations that have been critical of police, but in the role as police chief, you have to engage in those difficult conversations on some level,” Schnell said, adding that “recognizing the challenges officers face at the same time as being responsive to the community you serve may at some times put you at odds with the culture.”

Former Mayor Bob Cardinal said Schnell was respected but “had a strong interest in Black Lives Matter issues and didn’t always see eye to eye with his officers.”

Said Maplewood city manager Melinda Coleman: “Being able to have those tough conversations, that’s what I respect about him the most. … As long as he wants to be here, we want him here.”

“I admire the cops, the people who work in policing,” Schnell said. “I’m going to miss it. It’s hard to leave. It becomes so much a part of who you are.”

Maplewood Mayor Nora Slawik said she was disappointed Schnell is leaving: “He’s innovative, a problem solver, a proponent of community policing and race and equity issues.”

But Slawik noted that Schnell can now draw on his pension, so it didn’t surprise her or others that he was stepping away — “and then you don’t have all the headaches of unions, and that day-to-day stuff … the heavy responsibilities as director of public safety.

“If you can take your (pension) and get another job, why not?”

Schnell started his career in law enforcement as a sheriff’s deputy in Carver County in 1992. For many years, he worked for the St. Paul police department and was police chief in Hastings before becoming Maplewood’s chief in July 2013.

In recent years, he has often testified at the Legislature as a representative of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association.

“As a council we recognized Schnell’s influence at the legislature, and the ability to use his expertise to further important issues, like body cameras,” added Slawik, a former state legislator. “It benefited Maplewood and really the whole state in terms of influencing policy.”

Sean Gormley, executive director of Law Enforcement Labor Services — the officers’ union that covers Maplewood and most rural and suburban departments in the state — said: “I got nothing bad to say about him. Paul had a job to do and he did it well.”

But during his tenure, Schnell has clashed with the police union — most publicly about his new body camera policy.

The union is suing Maplewood in Ramsey County District Court over the policy, which has been in effect since November.

The union is objecting, in part, to a section of the policy governing when officers can review body camera footage relating to “critical incidents,” in which they caused great bodily harm or death.

The policy states that an officer needs permission from three entities — the police chief, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and whoever the prosecutorial agency would be — to look at footage before giving a statement. Such instances would be rare, given the fact that the BCA has come out against allowing officers “prior review” in cases they investigate.

Slawik recalls calling Schnell the day after the Castile shooting in nearby Falcon Heights and asking, “What are we going to do?”

“This could happen anywhere,” she remembers Schnell saying.

Within weeks, Schnell created a work group of Maplewood citizens focused on the department’s “use of force” policies. He also attained a $75,000 grant from the St. Paul Foundation to do race and equity work in recruitment and community policing.

So far the work group has met over a dozen times, and is expected to wrap up with recommendations for the department by the end of the year.

The process of finding a new chief can take months, and Schnell said he wanted to give the city enough time to find one by the end of the year. Maplewood’s Civil Service Commission will meet Monday to vote on the job posting and recruitment process.

Sarah Horner contributed to this report.

A jury on Wednesday convicted a Twin Cities man of assault for opening fire and wounding five men demonstrating against the fatal shooting of a black man by Minneapolis police officers.

Allen Scarsella, 24, of Bloomington, was found guilty on all charges of assault and riot. Scarsella showed no emotion as the Hennepin County jury’s verdict was read. Defense attorneys left the courtroom without comment. Sentencing is set for March 10.

Scarsella was accused of shooting and injuring the five African-American men at a Black Lives Matter protest after the death of Jamar Clark in 2015.

Scarsella and three other men, all wearing face masks, went into an encampment outside a police station in North Minneapolis to livestream Black Lives Matter protests that had closed down a city block. Scarsella, who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, brought a .45-caliber handgun and fired at demonstrators in what his attorneys say was self-defense. Prosecutors cited a number of texts Scarsella had sent to friends about shooting black people and accused the men of being white supremacists and trying to disrupt the protest.

Scarsella, who is white, testified he was afraid of being attacked while filming the protest on the night of Nov. 23, 2015. He said a group of protesters accused him of being in the Ku Klux Klan and that someone had already punched him in the face. Scarsella said he and his friends tried to leave the protest but a group of men followed them and one pulled out what appeared to be a weapon, prompting Scarsella to open fire.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said his office will seek “the stiffest possible sentence” for Scarsella.

“We charged him with the most serious possible charge that the evidence allowed,” Freeman said in a statement.

Only one of the five victims attended the verdict. Cameron Clark, 26, Jamar Clark’s cousin, was shot by Scarsella in the right leg. Clark said he remembers Scarsella provoking protesters with racial slurs and luring a group of black men up the street where he turned and shot at them.

Clark attended parts of Scarsella’s testimony and said he had “butterflies” in his stomach before the verdict was read Wednesday afternoon.

“I was kind of really thinking that (the jurors) were going to be on his side and they were going to let him go because he was claiming self-defense,” Clark said afterward.

Clark and another victim — Tevin King — sustained bullet wounds near major arteries. Hennepin County Assistant Attorney Judith Hawley said King was shot in the abdomen and that the bullet is too close to his arteries to be removed. Injuries ranged from leg, arm and foot to stomach and back wounds.

The three other men with Scarsella at the time — Daniel Macey of Pine City, Nathan Gustavsson of Hermantown and Joseph Backman of Eagan — are charged with second-degree riot and aiding an offender. All three have pleaded not guilty and await trial. In December, attorneys for the three men denied that their clients are racist. Macey is Asian, the others are white.

If hearing Kira Steger’s story could save one other person, it would honor the St. Paul woman’s memory, her mother said Wednesday.

That hope led Marcie Steger to take part in a national television show about her daughter’s murder, which airs Thursday night.

The Investigation Discovery channel’s “Ice Cold Killers” one-hour show this week is about the Kira Steger case from nearly four years ago.

The description for the episode says: “It’s one of the snowiest winters St. Paul has ever seen. Thirty-year-old Kira Steger spends the cold winter days working at a department store at a local mall. But the next morning, Kira misses work. Calls and texts to her phone go unanswered, and her loved ones know immediately something isn’t right. As investigators began to search for clues to find Kira, a three-month investigation leads to a gut-wrenching ending that leaves loved ones shocked and heartbroken.”

Kira Steger disappeared Feb. 21, 2013, and there were countless searches for her. A barge worker found Steger’s body on May 8, 2013, in the Mississippi River in St. Paul.

Prosecutors accused Jeffery Trevino, Steger’s husband, of smothering her during a fight in their home on East Iowa Avenue near Edgerton Street. Trevino, now 43, was convicted of murder and is serving a 27½-year sentence.

Marcie Steger said she, Kira’s father, a friend of her daughter and local officials took part in the TV show.

“Initially, the reason I decided to go ahead and do it was in hopes that someone will see it and it will help someone else’s situation, to avoid that from happening again to someone else,” Marcie Steger said. “You can never be too cautious. I’m hoping, even if it’s a little red flag, that people will be more aware of verbal abuse, physical abuse, controlling behavior.”

Kira Steger’s father, Jay Steger, said he’ll be watching the episode Thursday, though he knows it will be difficult to see.

“It just brings back all the memories, the pain and stuff that we went through at the time,” Steger said Wednesday.

The “Ice Cold Killers” program highlights police investigations in winter and under difficult circumstances.

READ THE BACKGROUND: Jeffery Trevino convicted of unintentionally killing Kira Steger

“In the case of Kira Steger, she was a young woman who had her whole life in front of her when she was killed,” said Mike Sinclair, president of M2 Pictures, the production company. “The tireless pursuit of justice on the part of the police and her family and friends’ dedication to finding her and her killer made this a story that we felt should be told.”

The episode, which is called “Ice Breaker,” will air Thursday at 8 p.m. locally. People can find the channel number for Investigation Discovery — which is different from the Discovery Channel — at www.investigationdiscovery.com/channel-finder.

Lawyers for over 700 people committed indefinitely to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program are asking the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a three-judge panel’s ruling that the program is constitutional.

Attorneys in the class-action lawsuit on Wednesday asked for a rehearing before the full appeals court. They argue that the panel applied the wrong legal standards, then erred in dismissing the offenders’ claims entirely rather than sending the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.

Only seven offenders in the program are currently free on provisional releases, and only one has been permanently discharged, even though it’s more than 20 years old.

DULUTH, Minn. — A couple allegedly drove to Duluth from the St. Cloud area on Friday with the intention of having sex with a 14-year-old girl they had met online.

Criminal charges filed Tuesday in St. Louis County District Court also indicate that Phillip James Adkins, 34, and Kayla Marie Frank, 33, sent the teen a series of lewd photos, videos and messages through Facebook before arranging the meeting.

Adkins and Frank, who live in Rice, Minn., were arrested at a West Duluth motel on Friday evening after Duluth police investigators were alerted to the planned meeting. They allegedly admitted that they had traveled to Duluth with the purpose of having sex with the teen, whom both knew to be 14.

Both suspects are charged with a felony count of electronic solicitation of a child. Adkins also faces an additional count of soliciting a child to engage in sexual conduct.

Each charge carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

Authorities said they opened the investigation after receiving information that Adkins and Frank had been exchanging communication of a sexual nature with the girl through Facebook. The source of that information was not specified.

On Jan. 13, Adkins allegedly suggested that he and Frank show the teen “how to be sexually intimate with another person.” That same day, he sent the girl two nude photographs and four videos that showed him engaged in a sexual act with Frank, the charges state.

Investigators said the Facebook conversations continued in the following weeks, with Adkins encouraging the teen to become friends with Frank. The messages allegedly turned “extremely graphic and sexual with offers from Defendant Frank to show (the victim) how to be sexually intimate with someone.”

Both defendants allegedly had conversations with the teen about taking her and “stealing her away from her family.” Investigators said Frank wrote that she “knew that they would get into trouble but that she would figure out a way to make it happen.”

On Friday, Adkins and Frank traveled to Duluth and told the victim that they planned to be at the Super 8 motel, on Duluth’s Superior Street, by 5 p.m., according to the complaints. Investigators verified that the couple had a reservation there and waited in the lobby for them to arrive, arresting both on site.

Adkins allegedly admitted to police that he had sent the videos to the girl and had come to Duluth to have sex with her. He acknowledged that it was wrong and asked for help, according to the complaint.

Frank also confirmed that she had been exchanging messages with the girl, the charges state. She allegedly admitted that the relationship had been started through Facebook and that they had traveled to Duluth to engage in sexual intercourse with the teen.

Frank remains on probation following a 2016 conviction for child neglect or endangerment in Sherburne County. Senior Judge Dennis Murphy set her bail at $20,000 with conditions or $200,000 without.

Adkins, who has no significant criminal history, had bail set at $10,000 with conditions or $100,000 without.

Both defendants are due back in court on Feb. 22.

Dressed in jeans and an “Animal House” T-shirt, Scott Klund fist-bumped Charlotte Rawls as he walked past her into a downtown St. Paul convenience store after bar closing early on May 7.

The former Marine had been at the Bulldog bar in the Lowertown area and wanted to grab a snack before heading home to his nearby apartment. Inside the SuperAmerica, the 30-year-old grabbed two bags of chips. He’s captured on surveillance video standing near Ray Gruer as he pays for the chips. Gruer is at the cashier next to him, making his own purchase.

Then the two walk out the door.

Gruer, 31, is seen on camera greeting Rawls, 52, outside the SuperAmerica, where she had been waiting for him. The homeless pair exchange words with Klund. Seconds later, after their initial meeting at the store, the three walk off together.

Within the hour, Klund allegedly shot and killed Rawls with a military-style rifle in the living room of his apartment. Klund also allegedly sliced Gruer’s throat with a knife and fired several rounds at the man as he barricaded himself in the apartment’s bathroom, according to the criminal complaint filed against Klund in May.

The complaint alleges that he laughed while talking to a 911 dispatcher after the shooting and smiled and winked at a police officer as he was being escorted to a squad car.

In opening statements in Klund’s murder trial that began Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court, prosecutor Thomas Ring used words like “carnage” and “savagery” to describe the events that unfolded in the ex-Marine’s apartment.

“At a very basic level … this case is about the strong against the weak. … Military tactics appropriate only in the theater of war being (used against civilians),” Ring said.

Ring never revealed a motive for the shooting. He described the gunfire as starting abruptly after the three got to the Parkside Apartments at 250 E. Fifth St. The first shot was fired at Gruer as he exited the bathroom, he said. Then the apartment turned into a war zone.

Klund’s defense team said the former Marine’s combat training kicked in when he was faced with a threat. Although he did his best to de-escalate the situation, Rawls and Gruer refused to retreat, forcing Klund to act in self-defense and shoot, said his attorney, Aaron Haddorff.

Haddorff said Rawls and Gruer were on methamphetamine and saw an opportunity to score money when they saw Klund walk into the SuperAmerica.

They tried to sell him a speaker, he said, and invited themselves back to his apartment.

That’s when things “started getting weird,” Haddorff said.

Rawls went into Klund’s lofted bedroom and started rifling through his belongings, Haddorff said, eventually prompting Klund to ask them to leave.

Suddenly, Gruer appeared in the hallway between Klund and the apartment door, holding a knife and Klund’s wallet, Haddorff said.

“The fear that kicked in took him back to his military career training,” Haddorff said.

When Gruer refused to drop the knife, Klund began firing warning shots, Haddorff said. Then Gruer threw something at Klund and retreated inside the bathroom, so Klund turned his fire on him.

Soon after, Haddorff said, Rawls appeared from the bedroom and started moving toward the living room. Not knowing if she was going for a weapon, Klund began shooting at her when she refused his commands to halt, Haddorff said.

“(Klund) … was in fear and he was protecting his body and his property in his own home … when he fired on those two people,” Haddorff said. He added that Klund had a right to do so.

The state called several witnesses, nearly all them St. Paul police officers.

Officers described responding after Klund called 911 to report that a man was critically injured in his apartment and “bleeding everywhere.”

When they arrived, the officers testified, they could hear a man screaming in pain inside the unit. They discovered Gruer bleeding on the bathroom floor from what appeared to be a knife wound to his neck and multiple gunshot wounds.

Klund was lying on the hallway floor, partially propped up an arm. He reportedly laughed when one of the officers asked him if he had been shot.

Bullet holes had perforated the bathroom door and bullet casings were all over the floor, the officers said. Some bullets penetrated the walls and entered neighboring apartments.

A black military assault-style rifle was found in the lofted bedroom on top of Klund’s bed.

Rawls was lying face-down on the living room floor. One of the officers described her as “cold to the touch.” The mother of two and grandmother of nine was pronounced dead at the scene. Gruer was taken to Regions Hospital to be treated for his injuries. He survived.

Although it wasn’t mentioned Wednesday, the criminal complaint said Gruer later told police that Klund had invited him and Rawls back to his apartment for a drink that night. Gruer said he was exiting the bathroom when he was suddenly shot in the arm. When he looked up, he saw Klund standing in the bedroom loft with a black rifle.

Gruer barricaded himself in the bathroom as shots rang out. Eventually, the gunfire was aimed at him through the bathroom door, he said.

Klund reached the rank of corporal while serving with the Marine Corps from May 2007 to May 2011. He was deployed three times, once to Afghanistan, once to the Philippines and once to Thailand.

He had previously been a student at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul.

Testimony in the trial will continue Thursday.

The family of a 16-year-old girl killed Wednesday night when someone shot into a St. Paul home is convinced she wasn’t the target.

Sadeya Hall was at a 17-year-old friend’s home in the Payne-Phalen area when someone outside the home shot into the basement, according to the father of the 17-year-old. His daughter and an 18-year-old male were injured.

Police said they were called to a report of gunshots in the 500 block of Case Street on Wednesday about 10:30 p.m. Hall was pronounced dead at the scene. Paramedics took the two other teens to Regions Hospital. Police have not provided information about their conditions.

The case does not appear random, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman. Police have not announced arrests.

Police Clips, based on scanner traffic, posted that a woman reported her daughter was shot in the back and a male was shot in the leg. The female victim was said to be in a house and shots came from the alley and through the window, according to Police Clips.

Homicide investigators are interviewing witnesses and working to determine what circumstances led to the incident, Ernster said. Police are asking anyone with information to call them at 651-266-5650.

A fundraising site has been established for Hall’s family at www.gofundme.com/burial-for-sadeya-hall,

Hall’s homicide is the third of the week in St. Paul. A man died Sunday night after being shot on a Dayton’s Bluff street on Hudson Road near Earl Street. A 5-month-old baby also died Sunday after suffering head trauma; a 19-year-old who was babysitting him in her Highland Park apartment has been charged with murder.

Two suspects have been arrested and two more are being sought in an early Thursday morning home invasion in Ham Lake, according to investigators.

A man and a woman living in the 9000 block of Northeast Birchview Lane awoke about 2 a.m. when four men wearing dark hoodies busted through the front door. The residents told investigators the suspects were armed with a long gun.

The four began assaulting the male resident while demanding money, they told police. The four searched through the home before fleeing with several electronics. The male resident did not require medical treatment from the attack, according to a release Thursday by the Anoka County Sheriff’s office.

As the group fled, the residents were able to get the license plate of their vehicle.

Responding investigators broadcast the license plate to other agencies. The number came back to a registered owner in Blaine, according to the sheriff’s office.

Blaine police spotted the vehicle and pulled it over. Two of the four suspects were taken into custody, according to the sheriff’s office. One was a juvenile. Both live in Blaine. Property from the Ham Lake residence and a gun were found inside the vehicle.

The name of the juvenile was not released. He remains in custody, the sheriff’s office said. The adult suspect was identified as 21-year-old Eric Gauthreaux. He was being held in the Anoka County Jail on suspicion of burglary. As of noon Thursday, he had not been charged.

Investigators are asking anyone with information on the other suspects to call the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office at 763-427-1212. The home invasion remains under investigation.