A Dakota County grand injury indictment has led to upgraded charges against a Brooklyn Park man accused of killing an Eagan woman and her unborn child last month.
Vern Jason Mouelle, 23, was indicted Friday on two counts of first-degree murder — premeditated murder and premeditated murder of an unborn child — in the January killing of Senicha Marie Lessman, 25, and her unborn son, Logan Andrew Lessman.
Mouelle was the father of the boy, investigators determined.
If convicted, Mouelle faces life imprisonment. The jury also returned two counts of second-degree murder — intentional murder and the intentional murder of an unborn child — which carry a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.
In Minnesota, a premeditated murder case cannot be prosecuted unless a grand jury has convened and issued a first-degree murder indictment.
Lessman, who worked at Old Navy and Panda Express in Eagan, was due to give birth March 19. Her obituary described her as “thrilled beyond belief to be pregnant” and indicated she had decorated Logan’s nursery in a monkey theme.
In a statement, Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said that shortly after 3 p.m. on Jan. 24, Lessman’s mother found her naked and unconscious in her Eagan town home with a bloody cloth stuffed in her mouth. An autopsy by the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office later determined that Lessman, who was pronounced dead at the scene, had died of a knife wound to the neck and an obstructed airway. She was 32 weeks pregnant.
Police obtained a warrant to search a sport-utility vehicle that had been spotted by a neighbor in Lessman’s driveway earlier that day. Inside the vehicle, which was found at Mouelle’s place of employment, officers discovered a store receipt for a pocketknife that had been bought that day, empty packaging for the knife, Lessman’s cellphone, a bloody trashcan and bloody women’s clothing. Mouelle was arrested in Mounds View about three hours after her death.