A jury acquitted a St. Paul man charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old man in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood last winter.

The verdict came as a relief for Miklos Dates, who had been unfairly accused in the case, according to his attorney, Chris Zipko.

Dates, 24, was arrested in December 2018, a couple of weeks after three men exited a Chevrolet Cruze and shot up a vehicle parked on Payne Avenue near Geranium Avenue in what authorities said was a gang-related incident, according to court records.

Taishawn T. Smith, 19, was killed in the gunfire. A pregnant woman, also in the vehicle at the time, was struck and injured. A third passenger, also a woman, ran from the vehicle and escaped the bullets.

The Chevrolet Cruze belonged to Dates’ girlfriend, and while Zipko said his client had been with the three assailants that night, he wasn’t one of them.

He exited the vehicle to go buy cigarettes inside the New Hope Market, Zipko said, leaving Jawan Tommy Mitchell, Carlos Dillard and another man briefly behind in it.

That’s when the assailants noticed the other vehicle, with Smith inside, and started shooting, Zipko said.

Officers patrolling in the area heard the gunfire and saw three men running from the Chevrolet Cruz, and apprehended the driver, who had stayed behind.

The man said Dates, Mitchell and Dillard fled the vehicle.

Zipko contends that while his client may have run when he heard police sirens, it was actually the driver who stayed and spoke to police that was the third assailant.

He matched the description of the third shooter given to police three hours after the incident, Zipko explained, adding that the assailant was described as a tall, skinny, male with dreadlocks.

Dates is shorter with an average build and short hair.

He added that his client’s DNA wasn’t found on either of the firearms found inside the Chevrolet Cruz, though it was found on a backpack and a bag of marijuana.

DNA on one of the guns matched Mitchell, who was later identified as the primary instigator in the shooting, and the assailant who fired the most bullets. Mitchell, 19, pleaded guilty to both second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder and was sentenced last April to about 30 years in prison. 

Dillard, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting second-degree murder after reaching a plea deal with the state.

Ramsey County Judge Nicole Starr sentenced him to 18 years in prison.

Dillard testified against Dates at trial, naming him as the third-shooter.

The driver found in the vehicle was never charged, Zipko said, even though he matched the description offered by the surviving victim and his DNA was found on the other handgun, along with a mixture of four other individuals.’

The prosecution contended at Dates’ trial that the driver’s fingerprint was on the gun because he handled it earlier, not because he fired it in the shooting.

Dates faced multiple charges in connection with the fatal shooting. The jury acquitted him of all the charges.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

A St. Paul man who threatened a staff member in the mayor’s office last summer was sentenced to two years probation following a guilty plea and after his attorney explained the man’s actions were the result of a health condition.

Ramsey County District Judge George Stephenson sentenced Jeffrey Karl Weissbach last week following this conviction on one count of threats of violence. The typically felony-level offense will be a gross misdemeanor on the 62-year-old Weissbach’s record.

Frustrated about the city’s response to his concerns about a homeless encampment near his home on the 300 block of Colborne Street, Weissbach repeatedly called the mayor’s office and threatened to “hunt … down” a staff person in there and “kill (the person) like a dog,” according to the criminal complaint.

When police showed up to arrest him, Weissbach had a heart attack and collapsed. Officers rushed him to the hospital, where he went into triple bypass surgery, according to his defense attorney, Brian Marsden.

The outburst was largely out of character for Weissbach, whom Marsden described as a “great guy” and father to a young teenage son.

But in the year leading up to the incident, Weissbach — a personal friend of Marsden’s — had been growing sicker and sicker, and subsequently acting “crabbier and crabbier” as his brain was starved of adequate oxygen.

The fact that it culminated with a heart attack while police officers were present turned out to be “miracle,” as they wound up saving Weissbach’s life, Marsden said.

In addition to probation, Weissbach, who previously kept two rifles in his home, is banned from possessing firearms and must undergo a mental health evaluation and partake in anger management classes as directed by his probation officer, court records say.

A Ham Lake man is suing the Minnesota Pain Center and Walgreens Co.for the roles he claims they played in his eventual development of an opioid addiction.

Michael Faulhaber and his wife, Yvonne Faulhaber, are seeking more than $50,000 in damages to account for the pain and suffering they’ve endured as a result of his addiction, and to offset money they’ve spent treating it, according to a civil complaint filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court.

David Hutchinson, a longtime Twin Cities defense attorney who has represented hospitals, clinics and doctors in malpractice suits, said that while he’s heard of similar lawsuits filed nationally, this is the first of its kind he’s aware of in Minnesota.

Faulhaber claims that medical staff at the center started prescribing him opioid medications to manage his pain back in 2003, and continued prescribing the medication — including high doses and quantities of oral opium and morphine — through at least 2016.

His doctor, Dr. Samual K. Yue, increased his dosages over time to “dangerous levels” without considering or warning Faulhaber of the high risks the drugs carried for addiction, or offering him “any alternative treatments to alleviate his pain,” the suit says.

Faulhaber filled his prescriptions at a Walgreens Store in Coon Rapids.

Overtime, Faulhaber became addicted to the drugs, and he maintains both the Minnesota Pain Center and Walgreens are to blame, the suit says.

Specifically, he blames his doctor for “negligent overmedication” and for failing to “evaluate or recognize” his addiction and substance abuse disorder, among other oversights.

Walgreens, alternatively, failed to stop filling his prescriptions despite knowing of his addiction and “negligently dispensing medications that caused (him) to be overmedicated,” according to the suit.

Subsequently, Faulhaber has suffered from an array of bodily and mental damages, the suit continues, including “severe” discomfort and pain, functional disabilities, memory loss, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life.

His wife is also seeking damages upwards of $50,000 for the pain and suffering she’s endured on account of her husband’s addiction.

Neither staff at the Pain Management Center nor the attorney representing Walgreens in the case, Brian Wood, returned calls for comment. However, Wood filed a motion in Ramsey County District Court shortly after the suit was filed seeking its dismissal, according to the court document.

Woods co-counsel, Michael Burke, filed a memorandum of law to support the request, which states, among other things, that there is “no authority in Minnesota holding that a pharmacist is negligent when its pharmacists accurately fill valid prescriptions ordered by a physician and supply those prescriptions drugs to the patient.”

It goes on to point to case-law from other states that indicates physicians, not pharmacists, have the responsibility of ensuring that patients know the risks associated with certain medications.

An accompanying affidavit includes a copy of a recent Star Tribune article that highlights the work of a woman living with chronic pain who believes “the pendulum has swung too far in reaction to the opioid epidemic,” and that some doctors are now overly cautious about prescribing pain medications to people who desperately need it

No attorney was listed for the Pain Management Center in court records.

A 16-year-old charged in connection with a St. Paul shootout that injured two about a block from Allianze Field this past October was convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm and ordered to spend several months in a group home and shelter program.

As a juvenile, Eric Kapreese Richards was adjudicated guilty by Ramsey County District Judge Lezlie Ott Marek in late January. He will be held in a juvenile detention center until he can start the 6-to-12 month intensive program at Jordan House.

The facility provides a number of services to the roughly six young men who live there at a given time, including screenings and assessments, cognitive behavioral therapy, transition and like-skills development, as well as access to resources to treat chemical dependency and other issues, according to its web site.

Two second-degree assault charges in the case were dismissed.

Two people suffered gunshot wounds and other bystanders were in harm’s way during the shooting, authorities say.

Among them was a woman’s toddler, who was narrowly missed by a bullet that struck her vehicle, legal documents say.

Officers who responded to the scene around 7:30 p.m. found Richards and another male suffering from gunshot wounds in a parking lot behind a laundromat at Pascal Street and University Avenue, authorities say.

Richards had what appeared to be a gunshot wound to his back. The other individual suffered wounds to his arm and head. Both were taken to the hospital.

Surveillance video captured by a nearby business reportedly shows Richards and another person riding by on bicycles when another male standing behind a vehicle reportedly drew a gun and started shooting repeatedly at them before taking off toward University Avenue, court documents say.

The vehicle he was standing by also took off.

That’s when Richards got off his bike and started firing his own gun, court documents say.

He fired about six times before an unknown person came into the camera’s view, at which point Richards fired two more times as that individual ran away, authorities say.

Richards then ditched his bike, threw something over the fence and took off, losing one of his shoes as he ran, the petition said.

Police found Richards’ shoe, a gun and multiple bullet casings at the scene.

The incident was reportedly gang-related, and police eventually arrested and charged who they say was the initial shooter in the case, Kier Shawn Johnson, also 16.

Johnson was charged with one count of second-degree assault in the case, according to a juvenile petition.

Johnson admitted to police that he fired first, saying Richards was one of his “opps,” meaning a member of a rival group, the petition said.

Johnson added he didn’t know whether Richards was armed at the time but said he decided to fire when he saw that both Richards and the person he was biking with were wearing face masks, the petition said.

”I know what’s going on. Too many people have been dying out there,” Johnson said, according to the petition. “I know everybody has guns. I’m not getting shot. I just got shot like three weeks ago. I’m not getting shot again; that’s why I shot him.”

Johnson pleaded guilty in December and subsequently received a 36-month stayed adult sentence and was placed on juvenile probation for an indeterminate length of time.

He also was ordered to attend a 9-to-12 month program at a juvenile correctional facility in Red Wing, Minn.

A 16-year-old was charged with two counts of kidnapping Thursday in connection with the theft of a van with two young children inside.

The van was stolen after the 16-year-old and other teens assaulted and robbed the children’s father, according to court documents.

Shevirio Charles Childs-Young was among seven teens charged in connection with the incident. It took place Sunday afternoon in the Frogtown neighborhood as a St. Paul man was putting his 8-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter in his vehicle, according to the juvenile petition filed in Ramsey County District Court.

The father and his children were on their way to the 8-year-old’s birthday party when a group of juveniles approached him outside his van on Sherburne Avenue near Virginia Street, according to court documents.

Without saying anything, one of the teens hit the man across the throat, “clothes lining” him and sending him to the ground, the juvenile petition said.

Then the group reportedly started attacking him, kicking and punching him while some rifled through his pockets and took his wallet.

After they finished, Childs-Young hopped into the man’s vehicle and took off with both children inside, the petition said.

The 1-year-old screamed, and Childs-Young pulled over after only a short distance and climbed into one of two vehicles parked nearby.

The rest of the group also got into one of the two vehicles, and then took off.

The man estimated about ten teens were involved, with several staying in the vehicles during the attack.

The teens were arrested a short time later after an officer at the Target store on University Avenue saw a group of juveniles attempting to buy gift cards at the store with what turned out to be a stolen credit card.

The group fled when the officer approached, but police found and arrested seven of them.

Childs-Young as well as Deveyon Steven Marquel Nix, 16; Rayevan Tobyyas Smith, 16; Wilbert Levunt Taylor, 16; and three 15-year-old males are charged with two counts of kidnapping and one count of first-degree aggravated robbery for their respective roles.

They are expected to make their first court appearance Thursday afternoon in Ramsey County Juvenile and Family Court.

The names of the 15-year-olds are not public.

Warning: Video includes explicit content.

No charges will be filed against the St. Paul police officer who fatally shot a man who rear-ended his squad vehicle and then ran at him with a knife last fall.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office determined Officer Steven Mattson’s use-of-force against Ronald Davis on Sept. 15 was justified under Minnesota law given the circumstances, according to a statement issued Thursday.

“The encounter Officer Mattson survived last summer was a haunting reminder of the dangers our officers too often face,” said Mayor Melvin Carter in a statement Thursday. “As we seek closure, our hearts are with the Davis family, with Officer Mattson and our police department family, and with all whose lives were forever changed by this tragedy.”

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigated the shooting, which included reviewing footage of the incident captured police body-cams as well as still photos, according to the county attorney’s office.

Davis can be seen on the video footage running toward Mattson before the officer’s camera spins toward the sky and he is overheard saying “Holy (expletive).” A witness has said she saw Davis throw the officer to the ground.

Then Mattson’s flashlight fell and Davis, 31, can be seen holding a knife in one hand and the flashlight in the other as he continued to run at the officer, who had stood back up.

Mattson shouted, “Get away from me. Drop the knife. Drop the (expletive) knife. Drop the knife!,” and then he shot Davis.

Police Chief Todd Axtell wrote in an email to the department on Thursday, “This incident is an example of just how dangerous officers’ jobs can be. In an instant, a seemingly innocuous fender-bender turned into an attack on one of our officers. As I’ve said many times before, no officer ever wants to be forced to use deadly force — officers do not choose these types of situations, the situations choose them.”

The encounter lasted 12 to 13 seconds from the time Mattson opened his squad car door to the shooting. Davis was pronounced dead at the scene on Sept. 15 in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood at Thomas Avenue and Griggs Street.

Investigating officers spoke to Davis’s wife later that evening and she relayed that Davis left in her vehicle the previous day, adding that he has been acting “really weird” at the time, including telling her “you’re going to be a widow,” according to a memo submitted to Ramsey County Attorney John Choi earlier this month by staff attorneys who reviewed the case.

The memo went on to say that methamphetamine and THC were found in Davis’ body when he died.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office released the memo Thursday afternoon, along with a second one written by Choi that supported his attorneys’ decision.

Investigating officers also interviewed Mattson about what happened. He told them that Davis came at him with “wide eyes” while making noises that sounded like “little grunts.”

Wielding a knife in his right hand, Davis looked like “he was going to stab me,” Mattson told the officers, according to the staff memo.

He said he tried to “create distance” by moving away from Davis and giving him verbal commands to drop the knife, but said Davis didn’t listen.

Instead, he continued to “charge toward him,” the memo continued, prompting Mattson to shoot him twice.

Had he not fired, he told officers he thinks Davis “would have killed (him),” the memo said.

Investigators also interviewed witnesses. One said they saw Davis rush the officer after ramming his vehicle into the squad, and then “chasing after the officer who kept telling him to stop and then pop, pop, pop,” according to the memo.

The witness added that he thought the officer’s actions were “clearly provoked.”

Two others witnesses also described watching Davis come after the officer as Mattson directed him to stop, the memo said.

Jeff Noble, a retired police officer and law enforcement consultant based in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., reviewed the investigative materials at the request of the Ramsey County Attorney’s office. He found that Mattson’s use of deadly force was “objectively reasonable.”

Noble wrote in a letter included as part of the staff memo that “a reasonable police officer in this situation would have used deadly force as Mr. Davis was an immediate threat of serious bodily injury.”

Choi’s office also relied on Noble’s expertise in 2017, when it called him as an expert witness in the prosecution of Jeronimo Yanez, the Falcon Heights police officer acquitted of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile.

In that case, Noble called Yanez’s use of deadly force “unreasonable” and “excessive.”

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report. 

Shortly after Marcus Johnson got into the front seat of a car to sell marijuana to someone he had connected with on Snapchat, he was in a bad situation, according to an account given to St. Paul police.

In addition to the teen driver, he discovered a second male in the back seat. Soon both pointed guns at him.

Johnson lifted up his shirt to reveal his own firearm and attempted to exit the vehicle, according to the account given to police, but they shot him before he had the chance.

That’s the story one of the teens gave police after both were arrested last Thursday. The arrests came five days after Johnson’s body was found in a pool of blood near the East Side intersection of Ross Avenue and Kennard Street.

Arthur Antonio McGraw, 16, and Rasheem Shacor Jones, 17, each face two counts of second-degree murder, according to juvenile petitions filed Monday in Ramsey County District Court.

PART OF INCIDENT CAUGHT ON SURVEILLANCE VIDEO

Officers were able to obtain video surveillance footage from nearby businesses that captured part of the encounter on the night of Feb. 15.

The footage shows Johnson arrive at the scene, exit his vehicle and approach a silver Corolla, which police discovered had been recently stolen, according to the petitions. After walking to the passenger side of the vehicle, Johnson went out of the camera’s view.

The footage then shows the Corolla take off at a high speed, and return shortly thereafter and park on Bush Street. Two males are seen exiting the vehicle and walking toward Johnson as he lies on the ground, court documents say.

‘SOMETHING REALLY BAD’

Police searched a nearby resident’s home five days later after finding a glove in the outside garbage bin that matched one found at the scene.

They interviewed a woman who lived there, and she told them her son had some friends over the evening of the shooting, including Jones and McGraw. Her son told her later that night that he kicked them out because they did “something really bad,” the petitions said.

The woman confronted Jones and McGraw a few days afterward and told officers that both told her they shot Johnson.

The teens were arrested later that day along with an 18-year-old who was released without being charged after police were told he wasn’t involved in the shooting.

Jones said the robbery plan had been McGraw’s idea. Jones said he fired twice at Johnson and McGraw shot once after Johnson revealed he had a firearm and tried to get out their vehicle, the petitions say.

McGraw said he spent Feb. 15 hanging out with friends in Oakdale. When asked about the murder, McGraw asked for an attorney and the interview ended, court documents say.

Investigators verified that Johnson’s last SnapChat communication had been to McGraw, court documents say.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office is seeking to try both teens as adults.

Officers responded to 911 calls in St. Paul about a domestic disturbance early Wednesday and discovered an unresponsive woman in an apartment, along with a man and a 2-year-old boy.

Paramedics also went to the Merriam Park area, but “unfortunately, there was nothing they could do to save her life” and she was pronounced dead, said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman.

After being called to the apartment on Pierce Street near St. Anthony Avenue just after midnight, police detained a 23-year-old man, Terrion Lamar Sherman, and made sure the child was safe. Both were brought to hospitals for evaluation.

Linders said he did not believe the boy had serious injuries. He did not have information about whether the child witnessed what happened. Police will be working with experts who specialize in interviewing children to find out more, according to Linders.

When Sherman, of St. Paul, was medically cleared, he was brought to police headquarters and questioned by homicide investigators, Linders said. He was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Police are investigating what happened and gathering information about how the woman died; her name has not been released. The people in the apartment — near Interstate 94 and Snelling Avenue — were known to each and investigators are determining the exact nature of their relationship, Linders said.

“Domestic violence in and of itself is disturbing,” Linders said. “When you add a 2-year-old child into the situation, along with a woman who’s gravely injured, that type of scene can take a toll on our officers because they’re human beings and they care about people.”

SUSPECT RECENTLY CIVILLY COMMITTED

Sherman was civilly committed last Thursday for mental illness and chemical dependency issues, according to Ramsey County District Court records.

The commitment order states he suffers from “an organic disorder of the brain or a substantial psychiatric disorder … which grossly impairs judgement, behavior, capacity to recognize reality or to reason or understand, … ( and is) manifested by instances of grossly disturbing behavior or faulty perceptions and poses a substantial likelihood of physical harm to self or others.”

The order, which was a re-commitment as Sherman had been previously civilly committed in 2019, did not require that Sherman be held in a secure hospital, but instead connected him with various services provided by county management services, according to staff in the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

Sherman also has pending criminal cases against him, including one for first-degree aggravated robbery and a second for fourth-degree assault of a peace officer.

In the former, he is accused of punching an employee at a Family Dollar store in Maplewood in August of 2018 who tried to stop him from stealing, court records say.

In the latter, he reportedly lit a shoe on fire on a neighbor’s patio and then spit at a police officer, charges say.

The resident who reported the incident told police that Sherman is a “K2 user who frequently causes problems in the neighborhood,” the complaint said. K2 is a synthetic form of marijuana.

That incident also took place in August of 2018.

Sherman has not entered a plea in either of the pending cases. 

A Robbinsdale woman started a fire on the campus of St. Thomas University last summer that wound up burning down a handful of mature pine trees and damaging a vehicle, according to criminal charges.

St. Paul Fire Department personnel who responded to the scene on the 2100 block of Summit Avenue last June 7 determined the cause of the blame to be incendiary, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court Wednesday.

Sometime later, Michelle Elizabeth Davis notified University of St. Thomas public safety staff that she was responsible for the blaze, explaining that she had set fire to cottonwood seeds that had built up on the grass, according to the charges.

The flames quickly spread to nearby pine trees, burning down five of them. A nearby vehicle also was damaged.

Davis, 21, said she lit the fire for fun, but did not intend for any damage to take place, the complaint said.

She was charged Wednesday with one felony-level count of wildfire arson and is expected to make her next appearance March 23.

No attorney was listed for Davis in court records and she could not be reached for comment.

She has no criminal record in Minnesota.

Maurice Londell McClendon’s most recent target was sleeping next to her boyfriend last fall in a tent near Union Gospel Mission in St. Paul when he attacked her, authorities say.

McClendon cut a hole through the tent and put her boyfriend in a choke-hold before ordering the woman at knifepoint to lie face-down on the ground, according to a criminal complaint. St. Paul was “(his) town,” he told the woman, and he was there to collect taxes.

Then he sexually assaulted her for three to four hours, according to the complaint.

That’s the account the woman gave to police about what McClendon did to her in the early morning hours of Sept. 26, according to the criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court.

He is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in the case, as well as a third count of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.

The narrative is similar what two other homeless women say McClendon did to them during the spring of 2018 and summer of 2019, court records say.

In the first instance, a woman said she was near the area of the Minnesota History Center around 7 p.m., on May 24, 2018, when McClendon approached her and a friend and asked if they wanted “to smoke dope,” according to the criminal complaint.

She followed him down some stairs near an exit ramp of Interstate 94 and 10th Street.

Once there, she said McClendon pulled out a knife, put his hand over her mouth and raped her, the complaint said.

In the other incident, a different woman was near the History Center on Aug. 15, 2019, when McClendon approached her and asked if she wanted to smoke a marijuana cigarette, according to the criminal complaint filed in the case.

She said she recognized the man from the Higher Ground homeless shelter in St. Paul so she said yes, and followed him to a nearby utility shed.

She was sitting down digging through her purse for something when she looked up and saw McClendon exposing himself, court documents say.

Upset, she told police, she pushed him away. McClendon then punched her in the face, pushed her down and raped her, the complaint said.

Surveillance video obtained from Higher Ground showed the woman and a man staff identified as McClendon together the day of that assault, according to the complaint.

The woman later picked McClendon out as her attacker in a photo lineup.

DNA taken from the sexual assault examinations conducted on the other two woman linked McClendon to the crimes, according to court documents.

In interviews with police, McClendon denied raping anyone but did acknowledge exchanging drugs and money for sex with women in the area of the alleged attacks, the complaints said.

He told one officer he would go to a secluded area with the women, show them money and then “make sure they did a good job” before paying them,” the complaint said.

McClendon entered a plea of not guilty to the August charges, and that case is expected to go to trial in the coming weeks.

No plea has been entered in his 2018 case.

Public defender Jeremy Plesha, who was appointed to represent McClendon in both those cases, said he was not aware of the new allegations against his client.

“We are in the process of sorting the matters out,” Plesha said, adding that he hopes his client receives “due process” at his upcoming trial.

McClendon is a registered sex offender and was convicted for violating the requirements of his registration in 2011, court records say.

He was also convicted in 2018 of disorderly conduct and violating a no-contact order in a domestic violence case. He was convicted of violating a similar order in 2019.

The husband of a woman who ran an in-home day care in New Brighton has been charged with multiple counts of child pornography possession.

Investigators executed a search warrant at Joseph James King’s home in June of 2018 after an undercover internet investigator determined a computer inside the residence was being used to download and distribute child pornography, according to the criminal complaint filed via warrant Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.

King told investigators that only he and his wife live at the address, and acknowledged familiarity with some of the computer file names under investigation, the complaint said. He reportedly denied posting any illegal files of children to the internet.

King’s wife ran a day care out of their home, which is located on the 2000 block of Thorndale Avenue in the Ramsey County suburb.

Her license was temporarily suspended days after the search warrant was executed, and was indefinitely suspended in September of that year, according to day care records maintained by Minnesota Department of Human Services.

The order cites allegations of “serious incidents in your home by an individual who had access to children” as the reason for the suspension.

King was charged with 15 felony counts of child pornography possession.

No attorney was listed for him in court records, and neither he nor his wife could be immediately reached for comment.

King has no criminal history in Minnesota.

After arriving at a Merriam Park apartment on a report of a domestic dispute earlier this week, St. Paul police found a woman motionless on the ground with injuries to her face and a man nearby covered in blood, according to charges filed Thursday.

A 2-year-old’s cries led officers to the apartment door after a tenant let them into the building on the 300 block of Pierce Street.

A 911 caller had reported hearing a man and woman arguing in a dispute that sounded “physical and very violent,” according to the complaint filed in Ramsey County.

As officers made their way upstairs, they heard a man say “Stay down or I’ll kill you” as a child cried.

Those details are included in the criminal complaint charging Terrion Lamar Sherman, 23, with second-degree murder in Abigail Elise Simpson’s death.

Simpson, 21, was pronounced dead at the scene. The child, found next to her when officers gained entry to the unit, had blood on his face, torso, pants and shoes, but was not seriously injured.

COMPLAINT: SHERMAN WENT TO KITCHEN, GRABBED KNIFE

Sherman’s relationship to Simpson is not yet clear, though a 2017 St. Paul police report that involved Sherman referred to her as his girlfriend.

Sherman told investigators who interviewed him after his arrest that the boy was his nephew, court documents say.

He went on to say that the boy had become possessed “as a dog” at the apartment and that he told him Simpson was “really a guy,” the complaint said. Simpson also told him she was a guy, Sherman told officers. The two started arguing and that Simpson eventually went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, the complaint said.

Sherman said Simpson came at him with the knife, prompting him to repeatedly punch her head against a nearby cast iron radiator, according to the criminal charges. He blacked out after that, he told officers, and said he didn’t remember stabbing her.

A medical examiner determined Simpson died from multiple traumatic injuries inflicted during an assault, including stab and incision wounds to her head, face, neck and extremities, the criminal complaint said.

DEFENDANT TO INVESTIGATOR: I’M ‘NOT CRAZY’

Sherman broke out a rear window in the squad car that was transporting him to the law enforcement center after his arrest and said he was on drugs, leading officers to transfer him to an ambulance that took him to Regions Hospital to be evaluated, according to the complaint.

He made comments about “hitting the dog” and “punching her head off” while hospitalized, but was eventually “medically cleared” and taken to police headquarters, according to the complaint.

He told investigators who asked him whether he took any medication or drugs that while he was prescribed medications, he didn’t take them because “he is not crazy,” the complaint said.

He denied using any other drugs.

No attorney was listed for Sherman in court records.

HISTORY OF CIVIL COMMITMENT, CRIMINAL ACTIVITY

Sherman was civilly committed last Thursday for mental illness and chemical dependency issues, according to Ramsey County District Court records.

The commitment order states he suffers from “an organic disorder of the brain or a substantial psychiatric disorder … which grossly impairs judgement, behavior, capacity to recognize reality or to reason or understand, … (which is) manifested by instances of grossly disturbing behavior or faulty perceptions and poses a substantial likelihood of physical harm to self or others.”

The order, which was a re-commitment as Sherman had been previously civilly committed in 2019, did not require that Sherman be held in a secure hospital, but instead connected him with various services provided by county management services, according to staff in the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

Sherman also has pending criminal cases against him, including one for first-degree aggravated robbery and a second for fourth-degree assault of a peace officer.

In the latter, he lit a shoe on fire on a neighbor’s patio and then spit at a police officer, charges say.

The resident who reported the incident told police that Sherman is a “K2 user who frequently causes problems in the neighborhood,” the complaint said. K2 is a synthetic form of marijuana.

That incident also took place in August of 2018.

Sherman has not entered a plea in either of the pending cases.

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report. 

Charges have been dropped against a St. Paul man accused of setting a fire inside a residential apartment building in Roseville during the winter of 2018.

The first-degree arson charge against Marcus Demond Carter was dismissed by Ramsey County Judge Joy Bartscher on Tuesday due to a lack of probable cause, court records say.

No further information was available in Carter’s case file.

Roseville fire and police departments were sent to an apartment building on the 500 block of Lovell Avenue Dec. 26, 2018, on a report of a fire.

When they arrived, they saw smoke billowing out of one of the roof vents, and assisted the tenants residing in the building’s eight other units out of the building.

When firefighters entered unit 3 — Carter’s girlfriend’s apartment — they encountered a large amount of smoke and fire damage.

Three televisions also appeared to be missing, as well as a smoke detector, and there were holes and paint “strewn everywhere in a manner that suggested vandalism,” charges say.

Investigators determined the fire had been started in that unit, and it was set intentionally.

To Ramsey County sheriff’s investigator Jessica O’Hern, Nathan Homme’s intentions were clear. She and her colleagues found shotguns, latex gloves, a blindfold and instructions to “box her in the trunk” stashed inside his western Wisconsin home last spring.

They found the “kidnapping kit” among several other concerning items when they executed a search warrant at the 40-year-old man’s house. They were investigating a report that he was suspected of breaking into his ex-wife’s garage in Shoreview and attaching a GPS tracking device to her vehicle, court records say.

“I think he was going to kidnap and kill her and potentially their daughter,” O’Hern said of Homme’s aims when she spoke following his sentencing hearing in Ramsey County District Court Monday.

That’s why O’Hern said she was troubled by the Ramsey County attorney’s office decision to drop the kidnapping charge facing Homme in exchange for his guilty plea to one count of first-degree burglary.

Still, she said she trusted the prosecutors to make the best decisions for the case. O’Hern attended the hearing because she wanted to observe the culmination of her investigation.

The plea agreement called for sentencing Homme to a stayed 21-month sentence and placing him on probation for an indeterminate amount of time, while also requiring him to register as a predatory offender.

JUDGE: AN ‘OMINOUS’ CRIME

On Monday, Ramsey County District Judge Kelly Olmstead decided the severity of Homme’s crime warranted up to 10 years of probation, giving him the chance to prove to her over time that the duration should be less.

While well aware that “movement is afoot” to shorten the amount of time defendants spend on probation in Minnesota’s criminal justice reform community, Olmstead said Homme’s case is an exception.

She added that she didn’t buy his claims that he never intended to harm his ex-wife or children, saying she had “significant concerns” for their safety given the “ominous” nature of his actions.

DEFENSE: NO INTENT TO HARM

Homme’s ex-wife and several of her supporters attended Monday’s sentencing. She declined to comment after the sentencing, and also declined the chance to have the victim-impact statement she submitted to Olmstead read aloud during the hearing.

Homme also declined to make a statement when Olmstead gave him the chance.

His attorney, Alexander Rogosheske, had asked the judge to limit Homme’s probation to five years.

“He accepts responsibility for the burglary and maintains he never intended to harm anyone or kidnap anyone,” Rogosheske said.

In addition to probation and registering as a sex-offender, Olmstead ordered Homme to complete domestic abuse counseling, undergo a psychiatric evaluation and refrain from any contact from his ex-wife or children.

He may eventually be granted visitation rights with his children depending on the outcome of his case in family court.

A BIT OF THE EVIDENCE

Homme was arrested after security camera images at his ex-wife’s home showed a masked intruder entering her garage using the keypad. Homme’s cellphone data indicated he had been in the area at the time, court documents say.

Law enforcement later found a GPS tracking device on his ex’s Honda Element.

In addition to the items in his Eau Claire-area house, law enforcement found what they characterized as the “outline of a plan,” according to the criminal complaint filed in the case.

It read:

“1. First stop-box, hockey bag, duct tape, hand cuff, blow torch, nails, garbage bags, my fresh clothes.”

“2. House code, shoes off, bedroom blitz, dt gag, handcuff, legs, hood) plus pillow …

“3. Box her in trunk. Drive Element to Wilson P. Put box in trunk.”

A couple of months before the burglary, a child-support magistrate issued an order suspending Homme’s ex-wife’s child-support obligations to Homme, as he had moved nearly 100 miles away and was no longer co-parenting.

An 18-year-old St. Paul man is accused of stealing from students and employees at area college campuses, including Macalester College and the University of St. Thomas.

In two incidents, Marcus Cortez Funches, 18, sneaked into students’ dorm rooms at Macalester and made off with their personal belongings, according to two criminal complaints filed this week in Ramsey County District Court charging him with first- and second-degree burglary.

One student reported briefly leaving his room in  Turck Residence Hall to use the restroom Feb. 16. When he returned about 15 minutes later, he discovered his wallet and wireless earbuds had been stolen, charges say.

Another student in the same dormitory reported his wallet stolen while he was visiting a friend down the hall the night before. He noted that a man he had never met walked into this friend’s room while he was there and asked for the time.

Many other Macalester students reported burglaries over the two-night period, with several students also describing a young man entering their respective dorm rooms and asking for the time after stating that his cellphone was dead, court documents say.

In a Feb. 11 incident at  St. Thomas, a woman said her wallet was stolen from her bag while she was working her shift at the Anderson Student Center, according to a third criminal complaint filed against Funches.

She became aware of the theft after her bank and credit card companies started calling her to report unusual activity on her cards at Target, ATMs and other locations, charges say.

Surveillance footage shows Funches inside the Macalester dorm  and  the St. Thomas student center on the days in question, court documents say.

He is not a student or employee at either school.

When interviewed by police, Funches acknowledged visiting the campuses but said he didn’t know anything about the missing items.

He remains a suspect in other burglaries still under investigation at the schools, authorities say, and the Ramsey County attorney’s office is reviewing other cases against him.

Funches was charged in February with robbing a woman at gunpoint in St. Paul’s Summit-University neighborhood last winter, and has yet to enter a plea in the case.

He pleaded guilty to two motor-vehicle theft charges last month, court documents say.

The public defender assigned to handle his most recent case did not immediately return a call for comment.

Additional charges have been filed against a St. Paul man accused of killing another man and injuring his wife in a shooting in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood last November.

Darwin Anderson, 26, had previously been charged on one count of intentional second-degree murder.

But an indictment unsealed earlier this week in Ramsey County District Court now charges Anderson with one count of first-degree premeditated murder as well as a count of second-degree attempted murder. Anderson also was charged with two additional counts of first-degree murder.

Anderson followed 32-year-old David Lee and his 33-year-old wife from Broadway Pub & Grille in Minneapolis early Nov. 1 to  St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood, where Lee stopped to drop off his cousin, according to the charges say.

After the cousin exited the vehicle, bullets started firing into the couple’s vehicle’s driver’s side, Anderson’s wife reportedly later told police. Four of them struck Anderson, killing him.

Anderson’s wife was hit in the thigh and taken to Regions Hospital and later released.

She called 911 about 2:15 a.m. on Nov. 1 to report the shooting at the 1700 block of Graham Avenue, near Davern and West Seventh streets.

Police arrived to find her screaming and hugging Lee, who was slumped over in the driver’s seat of their GMC Yukon.

She told officers that she ducked down and put her hands on the gas and brake pedals to get the vehicle moving after the shoots started.

Anderson was arrested after police reviewed surveillance footage from the bar that appeared to show him watching Lee in the hours before the shooting, according to the charges.

He also reportedly told several people at the bar he was “beefing” with Lee, of Oakdale, and “was going to get him.”

Shortly after Lee and his wife left, footage shows Anderson leaving behind them. CCTV cameras then showed Lee driving from the bar to an apartment complex in St. Paul, with Anderson’s vehicle behind him, according to the charges.

Anderson’s vehicle was reportedly then seen driving away from the area shortly after the shooting.

Cell records also place Anderson’s phone in the area at the time of the homicide, according to the charges.

After the shooting, Anderson reportedly told several people that he had been involved “in a shootout and that someone got hit.”

Anderson, who was arrested Jan. 1, told police he was at the bar in question drinking heavily the night of the homicide, but denied any involvement in it, according to the charges.

He pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge last month.

An omnibus hearing is scheduled for April, where he will have an opportunity to enter pleas to the new charges.

His attorney, Jeremy Plesha, said Anderson was expecting the elevated charges based on the prosecution’s earlier allegations, adding that Anderson would be entering not guilty to all counts at the April hearing.

Lee’s homicide was one of 30 in a record year of gun violence in St. Paul.

A man and woman threw Molotov cocktails through a bedroom window of a Vadnais Heights house last month, lighting the residence on fire while an elderly man and his grandchildren were inside, according to criminal charges.

The 81-year-old man said he heard the sound of glass breaking inside the home in the 4400 block of Oakhurst Avenue on Feb. 27 and soon after saw flames, according to criminal documents filed Friday in Ramsey County District Court.

He alerted his 20-year-old and 14-year-old grandchildren, and they managed to get out of the house safely. The fire caused significant damage to an exterior corner of the house as well as a lower bedroom.

A witness to the fire told investigators he observed a dark-colored SUV or truck pull up to the house and throw something into it shortly before the fire and then take off at a high rate of speed, according to the criminal charges.

Investigators homed in on 24-year-old Michael Richard Gould after learning that he had been involved in a criminal damage to property incident at the house earlier in the day, the criminal complaint says.

The 81-year-old’s 20-year-old grandson told police that while he didn’t know Gould personally, Gould had shown up upset with him for selling e-cigarette cartridges to Gould’s little brother, court documents say. Gould reportedly assaulted the 20-year-old and broke a vehicle window.

Investigators wound up charging Gould and Kathryn Noelle Schumacher, 36, with arson after video surveillance footage captured at a nearby Holiday gas station showed the two purchasing two glass bottles of vanilla-flavored Starbucks Frappuccino beverages and replacing the contents with gasoline from the pump shortly before the fire, according to the charges.

They also reportedly purchased a red stocking cap. Gould was seen on camera ripping the cap and placing pieces from it into the gasoline-filled bottles, according to the criminal charges.

A UPC code was also found on one of the broken glass bottle fragments left at the fire scene, and an employee at the Holiday was able to enter it into the store’s computer system and determine it was for a Starbucks Frappuccino.

Gould and Schumacher were charged via warrant Friday with one count each of first-degree arson.

No attorney was listed for them in court records.

Schumacher’s criminal history includes past misdemeanor-level convictions for domestic assault, disorderly conduct and check forgery.

Gould has two felony-level theft convictions on his record.

The relationship between a St. Paul woman found stabbed to death inside a Merriam Park apartment last month and the suspect was revealed in new court documents filed in the case.

Abigail Elise Simpson, 21, was 23-year-old Terrion Lamar Sherman’s girlfriend, according to the search warrant affidavit filed in Ramsey County District Court.

The court document also revealed that the 2-year-old child whose cries led police to the crime scene was Sherman’s nephew, the affidavit said.

A man and woman were reportedly arguing inside a unit in a dispute that sounded “physical and very violent,” according to second-degree murder charges filed on Feb. 27.

Simpson was found lying motionless inside one of the apartments with the 2-year-old child standing near her head and Sherman crouching over her body, the affidavit said.

There were also large pools of blood on the floor and a bloodied knife nearby.

Sherman was taken into custody and later told police that Simpson was his girlfriend and that he and his nephew had been at her apartment with her when the young boy suddenly became “possessed as a dog” and told him that Simpson was “really a guy,” according to the criminal charges.

Sherman told officers that he and Simpson started arguing and that she eventually grabbed a knife and came at him with it.

That’s when Sherman attacked her, he told officers, according to the criminal complaint. He said he blacked out after that and didn’t remember stabbing her.

Sherman was recently civilly committed  for mental illness and chemical dependency issues, according to Ramsey County District Court records.

The commitment order states he suffers from “an organic disorder of the brain or a substantial psychiatric disorder … which grossly impairs judgement, behavior, capacity to recognize reality or to reason or understand, … (which is) manifested by instances of grossly disturbing behavior or faulty perceptions and poses a substantial likelihood of physical harm to self or others.”

The order was a re-commitment as Sherman had been previously civilly committed in 2019. It did not require that Sherman be held in a secure hospital, but instead connected him with various services provided by county management services, according to the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

His sister told investigators that her brother uses K2 when he is on “furlough” from his group home because the substance doesn’t show up in the urine tests he is mandated to take, according to the affidavit.

She added that she gets concerned when he uses the synthetic cannabinoid because “he does crazy things and talks incoherently,” it continued.

He was acting that way when she and Simpson came to pick up her 2-year-old, Sherman’s sister told officers, adding that she only let them take him because she trusted Sherman, the court document said.

Investigators found a small bag of suspected K2 at the crime scene, the affidavit said.

Investigators filed a search warrant to see if the substance would be found in Sherman’s blood.

His next hearing is scheduled for March 31.

Simpson was remembered in an obituary posted by her family on Philip Funeral Home’s web site as a resilient, hardworking, faith-filled young woman who was 347 days sober on the day she died. She was working part-time and attending college, with hopes of becoming an attorney.

“She was so smart, so beautiful, so athletic, and could have been anything she ever wanted to be,” the post read.

Simpson’s family could not be reached for comment.

The mother who St. Paul police say threw her 11-year-old autistic son from a fourth-floor apartment balcony told them during questioning “I snapped,” according to criminal charges.

She went on to say that raising a largely nonverbal child with disabilities on her own was difficult, and admitted his medical issues sometimes made her wish “that heaven was the boy’s home,” the charges say.

A police sergeant asked her: “In that moment, were you trying to kill him,” according to the charges. Lloyd responded: “Yes, but I want my baby here.”

Itayvia Demetiric Lloyd, 33, was charged Wednesday with attempted murder in Ramsey County District Court.

Lloyd was initially non-responsive when police came to her apartment after finding her son on the ground with extensive injuries Monday morning.

Later, after her 6-year-old son told officers that his mother had pushed his older brother off the balcony and Lloyd was arrested, she started rambling incoherently, according to the criminal charges. She spoke of people being after her for years and a woman hating her.

At one point she reportedly starting ripping up papers on a table and later exposed herself, prompting investigators to end the interview, according to the charges.

But on Tuesday, Lloyd told officers she was ready to talk about what happened, according to the charges.

She said she went to a memorial service for a relative that weekend and woke up not feeling like herself. She’s been struggling with drinking and was under a lot of stress, she said, according to the charges.

Then, she and her girlfriend got in a fight, and Lloyd found herself in a fit of rage so intense that it made her want to hurt her 11-year-old son, she told officers.

Lloyd said she remembered going into her son’s room Monday morning and possibly carrying him to the balcony, adding that she “could have pushed him off, but she wasn’t in her right state of mind,” the complaint said.

“I snapped,” she told officers.

She added that her behavior in her first interview with officers had been an act.

JUDGE ORDERS EVALUATIONS

In addition to the second-degree attempted murder charge, Lloyd faces two counts of fourth-degree assault for allegedly attempting to punch an officer and spitting on another after her arrest.

She made her first court appearance Wednesday morning. At the hearing, her public defender requested two mental health evaluations be ordered for Lloyd, one to determine if she’s competent to stand trial and the second to see if mental illness or cognitive impairment could be a defense for her alleged actions, according to court records.

Ramsey County District Judge Joy Bartscher ordered both evaluations and ruled Lloyd be held in custody without bail or bond amounts set until the results of the evaluations are returned May 26.

Lloyd’s lawyer, Adrianne McMahon, said the evaluations are necessary.

“There is a lot more going on in this case then what is being portrayed by the state in the complaint,” McMahon said. She added that it was partly for that reason that she asked the judge to order that Lloyd be evaluated by mental health professionals.

POLICE FOUND SON INJURED

Police were called to Union Flats apartments on Hampden Avenue near Charles Avenue in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood around 8:40 a.m. Monday after a person reported what they thought was an attempted suicide.

Police found the 11-year-old boy in his underwear on the ground in the apartment building’s courtyard. He was bleeding from his mouth but conscious and breathing, charges say.

Paramedics took him to Regions Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery.

He is still being treated for a range of injuries, which are not life threatening, including at least one broken femur, a fractured jaw and head injuries. Additional surgeries are in his future, according to the charges.

Officers who went to his apartment found his 6-year-old brother at the door and Lloyd in the bathtub.

BROTHER TOLD POLICE WHAT HAPPENED

When Lloyd didn’t respond to officers questions about what had happened to the 11-year-old boy, they turned to the 6-year-old.

The boy told officers he awoke that morning to his older brother laughing and Lloyd saying, “This is not a joke — stop laughing,” the complaint said. He said the exchange happened shortly after he heard his mother and stepmother fighting.

Then he watched Lloyd carry the 11-year-old off his top bunk and into the living room. When the 6-year-old followed a few minutes later, his brother wasn’t there and Lloyd told him she threw the boy off the balcony, he told officers, according to the charges.

The 6-year-old was taken into the custody of child protection services.

Officers later talked to Lloyd’s girlfriend, who told police she and Lloyd had been in a relationship for three years. She said the 11-year-old boy is autistic and only uses the words “yes” and “no” to communicate.

The morning of the incident, she said Lloyd had been acting “out of her mind.” At some point, the woman left the apartment to go to the vending machine. She said the 11-year-old was gone when she returned so she went looking for him and found him on the ground outside.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi called the incident “one of the most tragic cases that has happened during (his) time as county attorney,” adding:

“My heart breaks for this 11-year-old boy who is recovering from his massive injuries and for this family, including the mother who stands accused of attempted murder,” according to a statement released by his office.

Lloyd’s next hearing is scheduled for May 26.

A 16-year-old boy admitted to fatally shooting an 18-year-old rival gang member in broad daylight on St. Paul’s Rice Street last September.

Dimitri Ramon Herndon Jr., who was 15 at the time of the shooting, entered a plea Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court on one count of unintentional second-degree murder in the death of Raumez Ross. He entered the plea shortly after he was certified to be tried as an adult in the case.

Ross, of Apple Valley, was shot as he walked down a busy street just before 4:30 p.m. Sept. 9 on the city’s North End.

After he was hit, he went inside a nearby corner store, Winnipeg Grocery and Deli, where he collapsed and died.

Surveillance footage from three businesses in the area caught the shooting on tape, leading police to Herndon, according to the criminal complaint.

The footage reportedly shows the teen gesture toward someone who was standing across the street from him out of camera shot near the Winnipeg market.

Then Herndon took out a gun, pointed it across the street and starting firing, the complaint said.

There were vehicles in the lanes of traffic between the two that were in the line of fire when Herndon shot, and two bullets went through the window of the market.

One of the bullets was found on the floor; the other lodged in a roll of toilet paper on a shelf.

When police arrived at the scene, they found Ross motionless on the floor covered in blood.

The Ramsey County medical examiner’s office determined Ross died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Herndon was located the next day and arrested.

He initially told officers he had nothing to do with the shooting but changed his story when he found out he was seen on video with a gun.

He told officers someone accompanying Ross that day had a gun and that he only fired his when he saw that person reach for his weapon, according to the complaint.

A witness of the shooting told officers he heard Herndon say “That is the opp” before taking out his gun and firing at Ross, the document continued.

“Opp” refers to a rival gang member.

The shooting took place during a time when there was a “serious and ongoing dispute” in St. Paul between West Side-affiliated gangs and East Side-affiliated gangs, the complaint said.

Ross’ death was one of three that took place in a span of eight hours in St. Paul that week, which prompted the city’s police chief to deploy additional officers.

Authorities say the gang disputes are ongoing.

Herndon is scheduled to be sentenced April 1.

Ross’ aunt remembered him as loyal, saying she would never forget the talks they had or his smile. Ross, who was known as “Mezzy,” turned 18 the month before he died.