Whether a former U.S. marine coldly shot two unsuspecting homeless people in his St. Paul apartment last spring or acted in self-defense against two conniving robbers is in the hands of a jury.
The jury received instructions Friday afternoon in the murder case pending against Scott Alan Klund.
The 30-year-old Duluth native was charged in May with one count of second-degree murder in the death of Charlotte Rawls, 52, and the attempted second-degree murder of Ray Gruer, 31.
Police found Rawls dead on Klund’s living room floor during the early morning hours of May 7 after Klund called 911. Gruer was bleeding out in his bathroom. Klund was lying propped up on the floor. His assault rifle was on his bed.
Gruer and Rawls had just met Klund about an hour prior outside a SuperAmerica. Klund had stopped there after leaving the Bulldog Lowertown bar at closing time and wanted to grab chips. Gruer and Rawls were there for coffee; the two were in a relationship.
There are differing accounts of how they ended up at Klund’s apartment.
Gruer, who testified during the two-week trial, said Rawls had asked to bum a cigarette. Not having one on him, Klund reportedly invited them back to his place.
Klund, who had been drinking that night, said he couldn’t recall why they all went back to his apartment but added that Gruer’s account didn’t add up because he’d recently quit smoking.
What was undisputed between both sides was that about 40 minutes after arriving at Klund’s apartment at 3 a.m., Klund shot Rawls dead and seriously injured Gruer.
Klund said at trial that he acted in self-defense as it became apparent to him that Rawls and Gruer planned to rob him. His attorneys argued Gruer and Rawls were methamphetamine addicts who saw a drunk, “happy-go-lucky” guy walk into a gas station as a target.
Klund said he only started shooting once Gruer confronted him holding a knife in one hand and Klund’s wallet in the other. He turned his fire on Rawls after she ignored his requests for her to stop running, he said.
“(Klund) was in his own home, there were two people against one, they had a knife and they came at him,” his defense attorney, Elizabeth Switzer, said during her closing remarks.
He had a right to defend himself against a threat in his own home, she said.
She added that the case essentially rested on Gruer’s word versus Klund’s and that Gruer, a self-admitted meth addict, has a record of lying to police.
Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Thomas Ring argued Klund had nothing to defend that night.
He described Gruer and Rawls as two “defenseless” homeless people who took advantage of an opportunity to use a bathroom and get a cigarette.
Ring argued that Klund ambushed Gruer from the stairs leading up to his lofted bedroom when the man was inside Klund’s bathroom. Then he said he turned his fire on Rawls.
“How is it self-defense to shoot and kill a (52-year-old) woman with a bad ankle who is running away from you?” Ring said in his closing statement. “When is it self-defense when a man is trapped in your bathroom, to shoot through the door 24 times … to kill him?”
Even if Klund had felt threatened, Ring argued that Klund could have called 911 to report a break-in, use his “imposing” 250-pound frame to tell them to leave or rely on his martial arts training as a marine to de-escalate the situation.
His choice not to use any of those other options further proves his actions that night were unreasonable and “over the top,” Ring said.
In addition to considering murder charges in Rawls’ death, the jury also can consider a charge of first-degree manslaughter.
They will deliberate on whether Klund shot at Gruer in response to the man’s attempt to commit a felony in his home. If that’s found to be the case, Klund would be deemed not guilty of attempting to kill him.