A St. Paul man who stabbed his wife to death last summer was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for her murder.
A judge issued Dah Eh Ray’s sentence Friday afternoon in Ramsey County District Court as he stood quietly next to his attorney wearing an orange prison jumpsuit.
The roughly 22-year sentence was agreed upon between the prosecution and defense. The parties negotiated the deal after the 60-year-old father agreed to plead guilty to intentional second-degree murder of his wife, Dah Dah Ray.
St. Paul firefighters and police officers responded to the couple’s home on the 1400 block of Payne Avenue last Aug. 18 on a report of a fire. Instead of finding flames, they found the 58-year-old woman’s bloodied body on a bed covered with a sheet of paper that read “Rest in peace” in red marker.
She had 15 stab wounds to her chest, two stab wounds to her forearm and sharp-force injuries to both palms, authorities say.
Officers also found four spots in the house where it appeared someone tried to set the carpet on fire.
Dah Eh Ray had threatened her life many times before, according to court records, prompting his wife to take out an Order For Protection against him.
The order was in affect when she was killed.
An officer who responded to the crime scene witnesses Dah Eh Ray walk out of the house carrying a portable music keyboard. He had blood on his face, hands, shirt and eyeglasses.
After this arrest, investigators held off interviewing him because he was intoxicated.
As he sat alone in an interview room, he “made spontaneous statements” to himself, which an officer translated from the Karen language as, “Honey, I want to die with you. I killed you. I want to die. My wife is dead. I love my wife.” He also mumbled about his wife “disrespecting him,” according to the criminal complaint filed against him.
He said nothing at his sentencing Friday. His defense attorney said he didn’t care about the length of his sentence.
“The number doesn’t matter to him,” she said. “He knows what he did. He knows that it’s almost in some ways unforgivable … And he takes responsibility for it.”
The couple has two adult children. Neither was present in court Friday.
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