ALMA, Wis. – A man accused of murdering his woman-friend and stashing her body in woods north of St. Paul changed his plea to guilty. Sentencing for Randall Merrick, 47, was scheduled for February. The plea was to a reduced charge of reckless homicide. The prosecution agreed to back off its original first-degree intentional murder, which would have carried a mandatory life sentence, in exchange for the guilty plea. Merrick was arrested in Rochester in June 2020 after the remains of Beth Johnson were found. She had vanished from heir trailer house in Nelson in 2016.
