BUFFALO, Minn. — The Minnesota State Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a man accused of shooting up a medical clinic in Buffalo back in 2021, killing one person and wounding four others.
Gregory Ulrich, who prosecutors said held a grudge against the Allina Crossroads Clinic for cutting him off from opioids to control pain, was convicted of 11 criminal counts including first-degree premeditated murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Ulrich and his defense team appealed the conviction to the Supreme Court, alleging that the judge in the case erred by denying a motion to move the trial venue out of Wright County and by refusing to strike a juror who had expressed bias against him.
In the court's ruling denying Ulrich's appeal, Justice G. Barry Anderson wrote:
1. The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying a motion by the defendant to strike a juror for cause because the juror did not express actual bias requiring removal from the jury.
2. The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying a motion by Ulrich to change venue based on the failure of the defendant to renew the motion following voir dire.
3. Guilty verdicts of first-degree premeditated murder and four counts of attempted first-degree premeditated murder are supported by the record.
"When viewed as a whole, we conclude that the circumstances proved support a reasonable inference that Ulrich acted with premeditation and an intent to kill and are inconsistent with a reasonable inference that he simply intended to injure the victims," Justice Anderson concluded. "Consequently, the guilty verdicts of first-degree premeditated murder and four counts of attempted first-degree premeditated murder are supported by the record."
Gregory Ulrich was 67 years old when he walked into the Allina Clinic the morning of Feb. 9, 2021 armed with a gun and an explosive device. Prosecutors say he was intent on carrying out a series of threats he had previously made against the clinic and one of its doctors. Ulrich shot five people, killing medical assistant and mother of two Lindsay Overby. Four others were wounded, some of them severely.
The attack came about two years after Ulrich was found incompetent to stand trial after he was charged with violating a restraining order designed to keep him away from Allina hospitals and clinics. Ulrich's case is chronicled in a KARE Investigates report called "The Gap."
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