RAMSEY COUNTY, Minn. — A man has been charged in the break-in of a home and into a 14-year-old girl's room in Ramsey County.
Russell James Anderson Baldwin is being charged with first-degree burglary of an occupied dwelling.
Police said that at around 3:00 a.m. on Aug. 10, 2020, deputies responded to the 4000 block of Oakhurst Avenue in Vadnais Heights to the report of a burglary.
Deputies spoke to a woman and her 14-year-old daughter who said a man entered the girl's room.
According to a criminal complaint, the girl told police she was in her room video chatting with her boyfriend when a man opened her door and sat on her bed telling her that they need to talk or something to that effect.
The girl told officials her phone was charging on the side of her bed and when she tried to get it the man blocked her path and said "No, no, no," prosecutors said.
The complaint states the girl's boyfriend called the girl's mom and told her someone was in her daughter's room. The mom ran and found the man who had a look on his face as if he had been caught, prosecutors said.
The mom said she could smell alcohol on the man, and that she took a picture of him as he left their home.
The girl told police this wasn't the first time she had seen the man. She and a friend were at a park when the man asked her to get into his car, police said.
The girl also told investigators the man had tried contacting her on social media multiple times.
According to the complaint, deputies recalled picking up a drunk homeless man, later identified as Baldwin, at the park the girl was at on Aug. 4.
A screenshot of a message the man had sent the girl on social media resembled Baldwin.
The complaint states Baldwin was also later arrested in the same clothing he wore in the photo the girl's mother took of him as he left their home, police said.
The girl was shown a photo line-up and identified him with 120% certainty, and the mother identified him with 95% certainty.
The defendant admitted to investigators that he climbed up the girl's balcony.
He said he was worried about her well-being and wanted to help her mom with money.
Court records show Baldwin was previously sentenced on Jan. 16, 2020 on three counts of possession of child porn in the Isanti County District Court.
