MAPLE GROVE, Minn. — A Maple Grove woman is charged with shooting and killing her boyfriend after she says he assaulted her.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County Court, Stephanie Louise Clark, 29, is charged with second degree murder with intent, not premeditated, in the death.
The victim has been identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner as Don'Juan Tymone Butler, 30, of Maple Grove.
Prosecutors say that squads responded to a report of a shooting at an apartment building on Magda Drive at about 6 p.m. on Thursday. When officers arrived they talked to a witness who said they heard loud bangs from a nearby apartment, and after a few minutes Clark knocked on their door. The witness told police she was crying and was with her son. The witness told police that Clark said "He's dead," and "I shot him because he hit me," according to the complaint.
Police entered Clark's apartment and found a man on the bedroom floor with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and identified as Clark's boyfriend. Later, an autopsy report confirmed his identity as Butler.
Police found five firearms in the apartment, according to the complaint.
Once in custody, Clark told officers that she had back pain from being assaulted by Butler. Officers found a bruise on her back.
According to the complaint, Clark told police that Butler had confronted her about talking to a man in a store. When they got home, she said Butler punched her in the stomach and back. Clark left to pick up her son and when she returned, the argument continued. She told police she then began following Butler holding a gun. When he turned around, Clark told police she shot him several times in the chest, and then in the head. The complaint says that she told officers she "wanted him to stop talking."
Clark is charged with second-degree murder, a felony with a maximum recommended sentence of 40 years. The minimum, if she's convicted, is three years.
