SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Did Alexandra Pennig shoot herself in the head in the bathroom of her St. Paul apartment? Or was she shot by Matthew Ecker – the 45-year-old married nurse practitioner from Fergus Falls with whom she was having an affair?
That question is central to the second-degree murder trial that began in Ramsey County with opening statements on Thursday.
Ecker called 911 in the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2022, and reported that Pennig had just shot herself. Police arrived and found her body in the bathroom. But officers began to grow suspicious of Ecker, prosecutors say, when they started noticing inconsistencies in his story.
Ecker initially said Pennig took Ecker’s gun from his backpack, ran, and locked herself in the bathroom where she shot herself, according to Ramsey County Assistant County Attorney Gordon Knoblach.
But then, Knoblach told the jury in his opening statement:
- Police noticed Ecker crying but producing no tears.
- Ecker told police he removed the gun and put it in his backpack, but got scared and placed the gun back on her chest.
- Despite claiming an attempt to plug the bullet wound to stop her bleeding, Ecker’s hands were clean, and he told police he washed them with soap before calling 911.
- But police found the bathroom sink to be dry.
- Ecker didn’t perform CPR, telling police he didn’t know what to do — despite being an emergency room nurse practitioner with Lake Region Healthcare in Fergus Falls.
“Police found Alexandra Pennig’s feet straddling the bathroom door, signaling it was open – not closed – when she fell to the ground,” Knoblach told the jury.
Knoblach also told the jury that Pennig was right-handed, but the gunshot wound was to the left side of her head and the gun was found loosely in her left hand.
Before finishing his opening statement, Knoblach mentioned a key issue that promises to make the case a difficult one for the jury.
“The state is not going to hide the ball: You will also hear she struggled with mental health and substance abuse,” Knoblach said.
Ecker’s defense attorney Bruce Rivers was more specific.
“Prior to meeting him, she struggled with depression, addiction, and even attempted suicide,” Rivers said. “Two days prior, in text messages she wrote that she felt hopeless.”
Rivers described the affair between Ecker and Pennig as an open relationship. He told the jury Pennig was dating another man, Shane Anderson, who reneged on his plan to move into Pennig’s apartment with her.
Anderson and Pennig fought that morning, Rivers said, and Ecker came to St. Paul that day to protect Pennig. That night at a bar, hours before the shooting, Ecker and Pennig found Anderson with another woman, upsetting Pennig. Anderson punched Ecker when Pennig and Ecker confronted him.
Rivers emphasized to the jury that Pennig was distraught over the situation with Anderson, while she and Ecker did not have any disputes.
“There is no reason for Matthew Ecker to kill her. Zero. There is no motive whatsoever. Zero,” Rivers said.
Court records show that immediately after the shooting, Ecker and his wife Elizabeth separated. She divorced him last year, and prosecutors included Elizabeth Ecker on their witness list.
“Did he cheat on his wife? Yeah, he cheated on his wife. Does that mean he’s a murderer? It does not,” Rivers said, also noting that Ecker’s wife was not aware of his relationship with Pennig.
Rivers said the lack of evidence in the case is “appalling.”
At the end of his opening statement, Rivers asked the jury to return “the quickest not guilty verdict in the history of Minnesota jurisprudence.”
After opening statements, the jury listened to the 911 call and watched body camera video from one of the responding officers.
The trial is expected to last at least two weeks.
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