Star Tribune
Convictions reversed in murder trial over Minneapolis real estate agent, court rules
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed the murder and kidnapping convictions of a former probation officer who was sentenced to life without parole for her role in the death of a Minneapolis real estate agent.
The state’s highest court ruled that Elsa Segura is entitled to a new trial because prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence to sustain convictions on two of the four charges, and that the trial judge gave the jury erroneous instructions about determining her criminal liability.
A jury in 2021 found Segura guilty of aiding and abetting premeditated first-degree murder in the New Year’s Eve 2019 killing of Monique Baugh. Prosecutors say Segura lured Baugh to a phony home showing in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove.
In the early hours of 2020, Baugh was found shot to death in a Minneapolis alley. Three other defendants were sentenced to life without parole in what prosecutors said was a scheme aimed at getting revenge against Baugh’s boyfriend, Jon Mitchell-Momoh, a recording artist who had a falling out with Lydon Wiggins, a former music business associate of his, who was also a drug dealer. Baugh’s boyfriend, who Wiggins allegedly considered a snitch, was also shot but survived.
The state Supreme Court affirmed the convictions of two of the other defendants earlier while its ruling on Wiggins, the alleged leader of the plot, remains pending.
”We realize that our opinion may result in another trial involving these difficult facts and intensify the grief of those affected by the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on Baugh and her boyfriend,” the ruling said. “Nevertheless, we are duty-bound to ensure that a defendant in a criminal trial is not convicted based on insufficient evidence or erroneous jury instructions that were not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Segura admitted during her trial that she set up the sham home showing. She testified that she thought she was helping Wiggins with his drug business. But she maintained that she did not know of any plan to kidnap and murder Baugh.
The majority said the evidence was sufficient to convict Segura of aiding and abetting in first-degree felony murder while committed a kidnapping, and to commit great bodily harm. But they said the evidence was not strong enough to convict her of aiding and abetting first-degree premeditated murder, or premeditated attempted murder.
It’s reasonable to infer from the circumstances as a whole that Segura believed that the original goal of the plot was something less serious than premediated murder, perhaps a kidnapping and assault, the ruling said.
But the ruling said the trial judge’s error in the jury instructions — misstating the law on the liability of accomplices — was serious enough that it could have affected the verdicts. So the high court threw out her convictions and sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings on the remaining kidnapping and felony murder charges.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
