A St. Paul man will spend the next several years in prison after fatally stabbing a friend who was helping him grieve the loss of his younger brother.
Joseph Edward Fischer, 37, was sentenced this past week in Ramsey County District Court to just over eight years in prison on one count of unintentional second-degree murder in the death of Thomas Rivard, court records say.
The sentence was a downward departure from state sentencing guidelines. Fischer pleaded guilty to the charge in April.
Speaking on his client’s behalf, attorney John Riemer said Friday that Fischer was “very remorseful” for what he’d done.
“Tom was a friend of his and he hopes that someday Tom’s family can forgive him,” Riemer said. “(Fischer) knows he has inflicted pain upon them and that (his parents) have lost their son.”
Rivard was concerned for Fischer when he showed up at his St. Paul apartment on Nov. 20, 2016, according to the criminal complaint filed in the case.
Fischer’s younger brother had died weeks earlier and Rivard was worried about how Fischer was coping with the loss.
The two watched the Vikings game together at a local bar, made a liquor run to Wisconsin, and talked.
Sometime later, police found Rivard bleeding from his torso on the floor of Fischer’s apartment.
The 35-year-old died at the scene.
Officers arrived at the apartment on the 500 block of Aldine Street just before 8 p.m. after Fischer called 911 to report that he fought with a man and stabbed him, the complaint said.
He didn’t want the man to die, he told a dispatcher.
Fischer later told police that he had been drinking heavily throughout the night while he was spending time with Rivard and at some point blacked out until shortly before calling 911.
He did recall though that he had been “p—ed off” when Rivard went to call his parents to tell them his whereabouts and also by his continued attempts to talk about Fischer’s brother’s recent death, the complaint said.
At some point during his interview, Fischer told investigators he thought he attacked somebody and inquired if it was Rivard.
When an officer told him Rivard was dead, Fischer reportedly put his head down.
“I’m so tired of people dying around me,” he said.
Rivard’s family said shortly after his death that Rivard had recently gotten sober and was on a good path with career ambitions of becoming a veterinary technician before he was killed.
He was remembered in his obituary as a “wonderful man who loved his family and friends,” as well as music, movies, photography, animals and being at the cabin.
“Tom was a good man and will be missed by many,” his obituary read.