The woman who allegedly suggested robbing a man in an Austin motel, which set in motion two homicides, has entered pleas to lesser charges.

Friday, May 18, 2001

The woman who allegedly suggested robbing a man in an Austin motel, which set in motion two homicides, has entered pleas to lesser charges.

Jenea Larae-Nichole Weinand, 19, of St. Paul, entered guilty pleas to second-degree aiding and abetting murder and aggravated assault Wednesday in Dakota County District Court at Hastings.

In return for the plea agreement, Weinand will testify against three suspects in the double homicide, which occurred June 30, 2000, in Austin.

Weinand originally was charged with two counts of premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of felony murder in the first degree.

The same charges remain against Vernon Neal Powers, 28, of St. Paul and two St. Paul brothers, Scott Perry Christian, 30, and David Kenneth Christian, 29.

A Mower County grand jury handed down the first-degree charges last August.

The three men are being tried together in Dakota County District Court after a change of venue from Mower County, where the crimes occurred. Weinand was to have stood trial separate from the trio.

Weinand’s guilty plea to the lesser charges has been taken under advisement by Mower County District Judge Donald E. Rysavy, while jury selection continues in the Hastings courtroom.

If the plea is accepted and Weinand testifies, she will become the second material witness for the state against the three robbery-killings suspects.

According to the criminal complaint, Weinand came to Austin on June 26, 2000, with Powers and Scott Perry Christian, plus Janet Elizabeth Hall, 18, of South Minneapolis, and an unidentified girl. Hall is listed as a material witness in the case against the murder suspects. Charges against her in connection with the crimes were dropped last summer.

The suspects and their acquaintances registered at the Downtown Motel and Weinand and Hall unsuccessfully attempted to gain work as exotic dancers at the Brown Derby and Hey Rube! bars in downtown Austin.

The investigation determined they became engaged in prostitution, working from rooms at the Downtown Motel.

At the same time, Juan Vincente Ramirez, 41, of St. Paul, and three other members of a roofing crew also were staying at the Downtown Motel. Ramirez was the crew leader and carried a large amount of cash, $8,900.

On June 29, 2000, Weinand met Ramirez, who bought sex from her in the woman’s Downtown Motel room.

According to the criminal complaint, the man showed his stash of cash in a red bandana handkerchief to the woman. The money was used to pay for expenses of the roofing crew while in Austin repairing hail damage after a storm.

Ramirez returned to the room he shared with the roofing crew. Later June 29, 2000, Powers, the Christian brothers and the girl returned to Austin from St. Paul and Weinand told them about the man with the money in a motel room nearby.

The criminal complaint said she suggested robbing the man.

Weinand and Hall and the others checked out of the Downtown Motel room they occupied. David Kenneth Christian drove the 1999 silver Dodge Durango to the south annex of the motel along First Avenue SE, facing the post office.

Powers and Scott Perry Christian donned ski masks, took weapons and followed Weinand to Room 28, where the woman knocked on the door and was allowed to enter.

Powers and Scott Perry Christian burst inside the room, while Weinand ran back to the waiting sport utility vehicle.

The complaint noted: "The occupants of the room were threatened at gunpoint and money demanded."

When Ramirez started fighting back and yelling for help, both gunmen opened fire, killing Ramirez and Raul Pedro Guiterrez, 26, of St. Paul, and wounding Benjamin Moreno Hernandez, 21 of St. Paul. A 14-year-old male cousin of Ramirez witnessed the crimes, but was uninjured.

During the struggle with the victims, Powers, the alleged gunman, reportedly lost a tennis shoe and his ski mask, which were found in the room.

The gunmen left the room, ran to the waiting Durango and David Kenneth Christian drove the group to St. Paul, police said. Along the way, they threw a wallet taken from Hernandez out the fleeing vehicle along Fourth Street SE near the Roosevelt Bridge and it was later recovered.

All of the subjects were taken into custody later June 30, 2000, in St. Paul.

Weinand remains in the Mower County Jail. She was not involved in the March 25 jail escape by Powers and the Christian brothers. David Kenneth Christian was found in the parking lot at the Austin-Mower County Law Enforcement Center after jumping from a second-story window, when two jail detention officers were overpowered and their keys taken. Powers and Scott Perry Christian were captured hiding in an Oakdale residence 54 hours after the escape.

The suspects are being held in the OakPark Heights maximum security prison since the escape from the Mower County Jail.

Rysavy ordered a change of venue to Dakota County at the request of the defendants’ attorneys, who claimed news reports of the suspects’ arrest and escape could not guarantee a fair trial for the St. Paul men in Mower County.

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