Wis. charge for woman accused in Minn. killing
Published 12:40 pm Wednesday, December 14, 2011
ASHLAND, Wis. — A woman already charged with killing her ex-husband in Minnesota last month was charged this week with killing her boyfriend in Wisconsin about the same time.
Angelina Mae O’Mara, 38, of Rice, Minn., was charged in Ashland County with first-degree intentional homicide on Monday, according to a Duluth News Tribune report (http://bit.ly/sXmXCU ). She’s accused of fatally shooting Michael Pies, of Blaine, Minn., whose body was found in an Ashland motel on Nov. 2.
O’Mara, who also has an address in Cold Spring, Minn., is also charged with killing her ex-husband, James Kelly O’Mara, in his Sauk Rapids, Minn., apartment. His body was found one day before Pies’ body was discovered. Both had gunshot wounds to the head.
Online court records didn’t list a Wisconsin defense attorney on Wednesday. Her lawyer in Minnesota told a judge earlier this month that O’Mara has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and “has little time left.” Attorney Adam Brainerd also said O’Mara told him someone else killed her husband.
O’Mara initially told investigators that Hell’s Angels were responsible for Pies’ death, according to an Ashland County criminal complaint. Later she said Pies pulled the gun on her and threatened to shoot her, and that she accidentally shot him while trying to wrest the gun away, the complaint said.
A detective asked O’Mara how a gun pointed at her ended up pointed back at Pies. She eventually said she gained possession of the gun, pointed it at him and pulled the trigger, the complaint said.
A week after speaking to the investigator, she contacted Ashland police from a Minnesota jail and said she hadn’t been truthful during her earlier statements, according to court records. She said she and her boyfriend had been arguing but not physically fighting. She also said she shot him early on the morning of Oct. 31, then put the gun in her trunk and came back to the motel room to sleep next to his body, the complaint said.
O’Mara is jailed in Foley, Minn., on $3 million bail.
No date has been set for her first Wisconsin court appearance and she has not entered a plea. She’s scheduled to make her next Minnesota appearance on Dec. 27 in Benton County.