A Le Sueur, Minn., man who pleaded guilty to killing his friend’s grandfather in Eden Prairie last summer says he hid in the victim’s basement for two days before he stabbed him.
Nathan Foth, 24, said he heard voices while he hid in a basement closet, but was no longer hearing them when he decided to kill 74-year-old Allen Retzer in July.
During his Tuesday plea hearing in Hennepin County District Court, Foth said had been treated at a hospital after a drug emergency.
Not knowing where to go upon his release, he went to Retzer’s home in the 7900 block of South Bay Curve because he had gone there before with the man’s grandson.
Foth said he broke into the basement and hid there for about two days.
He said he eventually went upstairs and struggled with Retzer, who had been sleeping, and stabbed him with a knife.
While conducting a welfare check on July 22, officers found the man dead in his bed, having been stabbed twice in the neck.
Foth, who agreed with a doctor’s assessment that he could not claim he was mentally ill as a defense, entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder.
Foth said he stole a gun case, credit cards, money and a van after killing Retzer.
The van was later recovered in Utah, and police arrested Foth when he returned to Minnesota on a bus from Oregon.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 14.