Scott Perry Christian’s appeal to the media to call him at Oak Park Heights maximum security prison was squelched Friday afternoon.

Saturday, March 31, 2001

Scott Perry Christian’s appeal to the media to call him at Oak Park Heights maximum security prison was squelched Friday afternoon.

District Judge Donald E. Rysavy issued a gag order, restricting anyone connected with the trial of three St. Paul men on first-degree premeditated murder charges.

Rysavy also scheduled formal arraignment proceedings for the trio to be held at 9 a.m. Friday.

He will rule on motions to continue the trial – still scheduled to begin April 9 – and on a change of venue because of pretrial publicity, on Monday.

One of the defendants made a last-minute plea to tell the media his side of the story at Friday’s court hearing.

Scott Perry Christian, 30, of St. Paul, is one of three men facing trial commencing with jury selection April 9 in Mower County Third Judicial District Court.

On Friday, the St. Paul man and his two accomplices, David Kenneth Christian, 28, of St. Paul, and Vernon Neal Powers Jr., 28, of St. Paul, appeared in court on charges stemming from their escape a week ago today from the Mower County Jail.

David Kenneth Christian suffered a broken leg in a fall from a second-story window in the jail atop the Austin-Mower County Law Enforcement Center in downtown Austin. He was immediately recaptured.

Scott Perry Christian and Powers made their getaway with the help of Gabrielle Skye Holvick, 18, of Austin, who waited near the jail in a car and took them to Oakdale. Holvick was arrested Monday at her grandmother’s home in Austin and charged with aiding in the escape. She is in the Mower County Jail.

During their 54 hours of freedom, Powers and Scott Perry Christian hid in a home occupied by a 40-year-old woman, her 19-year-old daughter and the daughter’s 1-year-old child.

Acting on an anonymous tip, the pair were recaptured without incident last Tuesday afternoon and placed in the Oak Park Heights maximum security prison.

The pair were returned to Austin Friday under heavy guard to make their first appearance on five counts, stemming from the escape. David Kenneth Christian was delivered to the Mower County courtroom from a secure patient confinement room at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester.

Flanked by his brother in a wheelchair on one side and Powers, who also suffered a leg injury in the leap from the jail’s office, Scott Perry Christian startled everyone as media representatives were ushered in the courtroom by twice inviting reporters to "call me at the Oak Park Heights prison" and then announcing a telephone number.

Powers and Scott Perry Christian each wore a bright blue helmet, that was used to prevent individuals in custody from head-butting.

Except for Scott Perry Christian’s plea to the media to call him in prison, the defendants whispered conversations with their defense attorneys and answered Rysavy’s questions from their seats in the defense tables.

Sex, money, murder

The trio are charged with the June 30 shooting deaths of two St. Paul men, Juan Vincente Ramirez, 41, and Raul Pedro Guiterrez, 26, and the wounding of Benjamin Moreno Hernandez, 20, also of St. Paul.

A grand jury convened last August and indicted the defendants on first-degree charges.

The victims, plus a 14-year-old cousin, who was not shot, were staying in Room 28 at the Downtown Motel in Austin. They were part of a roofing crew working in the city at the time of the shootings.

According to the criminal complaint, Ramirez went to the room of Jenea Larae-Nichol Weinand, 19 of St. Paul, for sex. He inadvertently showed the woman a wad of cash, $8,900, that he kept in a red bandana for his crew’s expenses.

When he left the room, Weinand told her companions about the money and a robbery plan was hatched.

With David Kenneth Christian driving the getaway vehicle, Weinand went to the motel room door. When it was answered, Powers and Scott Perry Christian allegedly burst inside and demanded money.

When Ramirez refused, a scuffle ensued and then Powers and Scott Perry Christian opened fire, killing two men and wounding a third.

The men and their female accomplishes fled Austin and returned to St. Paul, where they were captured late June 30.

The robbers, who left behind a tennis shoe and ski mask in the motel room, missed Ramirez’s stash of cash and only took a wallet, which they later discarded near the Roosevelt Bridge on Fourth Street SE.

Weinand also was charged in connection with the robbery-killings, and so was another 18-year-old Minneapolis woman. She will stand trial separately from the three St. Paul men, who will be tried together for the Downtown Motel killings.

The other woman with Weinand, Janet Hall, had charges dropped after agreeing to be a material witness against the others.

Since the crimes last summer, all four suspects have been housed in the Mower County Jail.

Trio make getaway

Then came last Sunday’s escape. The Christian brothers and Powers, who were housed in the jail together but segregated from other prisoners, lured one of two jailers on duty at the time to their cell with a ruse of spilled cereal.

According to the criminal complaint, they beat the guard and made their way out of the jail. Along the way, they encountered a second guard – a female detention officer – and threw her into a jail cell and continued to the office area. There they used a golf club to break a window without bars or other security and jumped to the Law Enforcement Center parking lot below before two of them jumped into the waiting car and were taken out of the city.

At Friday’s first appearance on the escape charges, each defendant requested a court-appointed attorney.

Bail of $188,000 each – bail of $1 million each was ordered for the robbery-murder charges last August – was set by Rysavy at the request of prosecuting attorneys Patrick A. Oman, the Mower County attorney, plus two Minnesota assistant attorneys general, Peter Orput and Tim Rank, who are assisting in the prosecution.

Then, Rysavy heard other motions in connection with the case.

Plea agreement backfires

Powers, one of the two shooters in the June 30 robbery-killings, according to the criminal complaint, had entered into a plea agreement to change his not-guilty plea to the robbery-murder charges in order to serve any sentences concurrently.

Later, the prosecution withdrew its plea agreement offer and the court – new District Court Judge Fred. A. Wellmann heard that request – did not accept the agreement.

Sara Jane Olson, a public defender, argued on behalf of Powers Friday. Olson said a plea agreement is a popular and necessary option in today’s criminal justice system. She also accused the prosecution of "playing games with the court" by withdrawing the agreement it offered Powers in exchange for his confession.

Rysavy chastised Olson, calling her argument "disingenuous," because it was the defense’s attempt to "rush to go before a judge (Wellmann) who was not familiar with the case."

Olson said the "rush" was created by the prosecution, which only offered the plea agreement and did not give them time to otherwise react.

Rysavy said it was "academic" and that the state had withdrawn its offer and the court could not act on it.

Too much information

Chester D. Swenson, an Albert Lea public defender, submitted motions for a continuance of the trial scheduled to begin April 9 and for a change of venue. All of the defendants were in concurrence on the motions.

Beginning with charges that statements by attorneys for the defendants, press coverage and the coverage of Powers’ willingness to change his plea to guilty after the prosecution made the offer, Swenson said the crimes have received too much media coverage to allow the defendants a fair and impartial trial in Mower County.

Swenson also cited Internet interviews promulgated by the Saint Paul Pioneer Press and Minneapolis Star Tribune newspapers, headlines and a story in the Austin Daily Herald, saying "people were put at risk by their escape last Sunday" and electronic broadcast coverage.

Swenson suggested moving the trial to St. Cloud.

Attorney Richard Smith, who is a public defender representing Scott Perry Christian, specifically mentioned comments made by Oman and broadcast on television newscasts as evidence that a change of venue to another jurisdiction is needed.

Smith also suggested the jury pool has shrunk since the suspects’ escape last Sunday, because the two jailers hurt in the escape could have relatives and friends among the pool of prospective jurors.

Barry Voss, a public defender representing David Kenneth Christian, agreed with Swenson’s and Smith’s arguments for a change of venue.

He said the prosecutors’ suggestions to the media that the defendants have gang affiliations, thus far unsubstantiated, further prejudice the defendants.

Rysavy asked the defendants and their attorneys about the defendants’ right to a speedy trial and all three suspects and their attorneys said they would waive that right.

"A change of venue is not something that gets done at the snap of the fingers," Rysavy said.

The prosecution argued that media coverage of the crimes has been even more intense where both the victims and the suspects lived.

Also, the defendants themselves generated more pretrial publicity when they sought to escape the jail, according to Tim Rank, an assistant attorney general who is aiding Oman in prosecuting the case.

Peter Orput, lead trial attorney for the attorney general’s criminal division, also is a co-counsel.

The judge took the motions to continue the trial and for a change of venue under advisement.

He issued a warning to all court, court administration and criminal justice system personnel not to discuss the case, pending a formal written order Rysavy will issue Monday.

Call Lee Bonorden at 434-2232 or e-mail him at newsroom@austindailyherald.com.