ST. PAUL, Minn. - A St. Paul man is now charged with murder in connection withthe weekend beating deathof his girlfriend.
The Ramsey County Attorney's Office charged 26-year-old Brent Lanier Lynch with second degree murder Tuesday.
A criminal complaint says on the morning of March 3 St. Paul police officers responded to a 911 hang-up from Lynch's residence on the 800 block of Minnehaha Avenue. There, officers met a neighbor who directed them inside the residence. Upstairs,they found Carolyn Marie Leete covered in blood and unresponsive.
A neighbor with medical training had stopped over to check on the victim when Lynch told her that he had thrown Leete on the bed, but missed and she hit her head on the floor.
Investigators found a large blood spatter on the bedroom wall, and blood in other spots around the home.
Officers arrested Lynchsneaking into a taxi near his home. The criminal complain says officers heard him say "It wasn't supposed to go down like this. This was't supposed to happen. It was the alcohol."
He later told Ramsey County Sheriff's Deputies working at the jail "please be nice to me. I'm here for a long time."
An autopsy performed on Leete indicated traumatic head injury as the cause of death. The victim had sustained numerous contusions to the back of her head and chin, as well as several lacerations on both lips and fractured nasal bones.
Contrary to what Lynch told witnesses, the victim was not highly intoxicated, with her blood alcohol concentration measuring less than .04.
Lynch has four prior felony convictions, including terroristic threats in Dakota and Ramsey Counties as well as a conviction for assault in the third degree.
"This was a senseless tragedy for the victim's family and our community," said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. "Our office will aggressively pursue justice in this case."
If found guilty, Brent Lynch faces a sentence of up to 40 years in prison.
