MANKATO, Minn. – The criminal complaint in a fatal Mankato stabbing this week  is sordid. An autopsy showed that Dennis Vosika, the 34-year-old victim, was stabbed 43 times. This was at the Kwik Trip convenience store where he worked. Just as debased are other particulars listed in the criminal complaint: The man accused of the stabbing told police he was hearing voices to destroy and burn everything down: “I wasn’t gonna knife the guy at first. I was just gonna set the place on fire.” Surveillance video showed the assailant entering the store with a large knife, walking to the refrigerator section, and using the knife to open a package of meat. Then he went to the check-out counter, went behind the counter, threw Vosika to the floor, and began stabbing. At the hospital emergency room, where Vosika was pronounced, they counted 43 “sharp force injuries” in his head, back and leg. The assailant was identified on surveillance video as James Lee Miller, age 28, who lived in guardianship at a group a five-minute walk away. The Minnesota River Valley tactical response team swarmed the address. Miller was taken without resistance. He was quoted as asking a tactical team officer “if that guy survived.” Documents say that Miller suffered from brain and post-traumatic damage.

Vosika. Had worked several years at Kwik Trip. Had been battling kidney failure15 years. Friends called him positive, radiant, resilient — always smiling, caring, and kind. His nickname: The Social Butterfly. Born in the Philippines. Adopted into Minnesota family as an infant. An avid card collector and Timberwolves fan.

Earlier: $4 million bail in convenience store stabbing

WINONA Minn. – Hoping against hope, the Sugar Loaf auto dealership is asking $28,000 for a used 2021 Tesla Model Y. It’s the only Tesla on any Winona lot as the once-vaunted brand has come suddenly to be shunned in the marketplace in swelling distaste against the company founder Elon Musk. Widespread frustration has exploded against Musk as President Trump’s hatchet man in recklessly dismantling government services, firing thousands of government employees without warning, and canceling  hundreds of government contracts.  How has public frustration manifested itself? Tesla dealerships have been subject to embarrassing demonstrations. People have set Teslas on fire, spray-painted swastikas on them, and middle-fingered Tesla drivers on the street. This is not to mention dog shit smeared on windshields, hoods, and door handles. Less visceral but perhaps more potent is a boycott. Tesla sales are off 43%. Investors have been liquidating their stock. Shares dropped 53% this week. Desperate to stem the setbacks, Musk implored employees not to sell their company stock. But then came legally required filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that showed  top officers at the company had offloaded $100 million in shares since early February — and not one of them making any purchases.  The sellers included Musk ally James Murdoch, son of Fox media magnate Rupert Murdoch, a Tesla board member since 2017.  He sold shares worth $13 million.

Unloved Tesla.  Pretty to look at in some eyes but suddenly a marketplace pariah. Sitting on a Winona lot — $28,000 and 64,000 miles. Be seen in it if you dare. Price very negotiable.

WINONA, Minn. — Two men at the downtown warming center got into an argument over a girl and one drew a knife on the other. Or so police were told. The incident was reported to police about 9 p.m., inexplicably 11 hours later.  Police questioned the men, neither of whom wanted to press charges. One man said, however, that the other man had slashed tires on his bicycle in the alley behind the basement warming center at 69 East Third Street.

WINONA, Minn. – Ihe lost-and-found department at the Winona police department is holding a plastic baggie with 8.2 grams of fentanyl. The baggie was found in an apartment parking lot in the 500 block of Kerry Drive on the Far West End. This was about 10:45 a.m. To claim the baggie, take your ID  to the police station and say you read in the Winona Journal that your baggie was in the evidence room.

WINONA, Minn. – Police caught up with a Winona man who had been reported for erratic behavior in a Kwik Trip shop – and then, when stopped, acted even more erratically. Brett Alan Williams, age 32, obsessed about playing in the dirt and kept complaining about being overheated, police said. Overheated? This was 2 a.m. The temperature was 33. And he was wearing shorts and only a light jacket. A check of his blood-alcohol level showed zero.  A drug evaluation expert was called in and concluded there were symptoms of serious impairment. Informed he was under arrest, the man ran, police said. An officer tackled him after a few steps. At jail, officers said, he refused to provide blood and urine samples for drug testing. He was charged with:

> Driving impaired.

> Being under the influence of a controlled substance.

> Obstructing an officer.

> Refusing a test for drugs.

The original complaint was from the all-night Kwik Trip at Mankato Avenue and Broadway.  A clerk called police about a customer who had trouble navigating the aisles and was muttering incoherently to himself, and then drove off. Police spotted the vehicle on Center Street between Broadway and Wabasha streets and saw the driver steaking away on foot. When they caught him, they said he yelled and screamed and laughed inexplicably and kept making remarks about playing in the dirt.

Williams. The county’s certified drug valuation expert was summed to arrest scene.

Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 12, Hope 3

Softball: Babson 7, UW-LaCrosse 4

Softball: UW-LaCrosse 8, Hope 4

Basketball (boys): Moorhead Spuds 76, Rochester

Basketball (boys): LaCrosse Aquinas Blugolds 57, Mineral Point Pointers 54

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man was arrested for a shooting of another of another man with a pellet gun a couple hours earlier on the East End. Arrested was John Edward Mullen, age 35. Mullen was taken without resistance about 5 p.m. The arrest was at a house in the 800 block of East Mark Street near where he shooting occurred. Officers, who had a search warrant, talked with several people in the house and located Mullen and also a number of pellet guns. The shooting had been about 3 p.m. Responding to a call police found the victim with a wounded arm. He was conscious and alert and taken a few blocks to the hospital. The shooting was in the 550 block of Mankato Avenue.

Mullen. Booked for assault.

MANKATO, Minn. – Bail was set at $4 million for the man accused of stabbing and killing a night-shift clerk at a Kwik Trip store Tuesday in Mankato. Michael Lee Miller, age 28, was advised that he has been charged with second-degree murder, which can be punished by 40 years in prison. The stabbing was gruesome with 43 puncture wounds. It could be that Blue Earth County prosecutor Pat McDermott could ask that a grand jury be empaneled to elevate the charge to first-degree murder. In Minnesota a grand jury indictment is required for murder n he first degree.

Earlier: Store surveillance cams led to apprehension

Earlier: Police make arrest in fatal Kwik Trip stabbing

Earlier: Overnight Kwik Trip clerk stabbed fatally

A gorgeous morning to be snowed in. By 10 a.m. only one lane had been plowed up East Burns Valley in Wilson Township. In nearby Winooa the snow was 8-1/2 inches. It It seemed deeper in the bluffs. Image: Andy Frank

WINONA, Minn. – Before an unexpectedly severe winter storm cleared, Winona County deputies responded to eight accidents. Most were vehicles in the ditch off Interstate 90 across the southern townships. Three involved trucks towing semi-trailers. Minor injuries were reported in one accident, deputies said.

Earlier: Jack-knifing semis block snow-packed I-90

A tad early. Little Robin Red Breast arrived at Farmers Park as he has annually since appearing first in an Irish nursery ditty dating at least to 1744. As always there were crab apples still hanging on from autumn. Image: Steve Lunde

Original lyric

Little Robin Red Breast,

Sitting on a pole,

Nidde, Noddle, Went his tail.

And poop went his hole.

Sanitized

Little Robin Red Breast,

Sitting on a rail,

Wiggle, waggle,

Went his tail.

Fingerplay

Right hand extended in shape of a bird
poised on extended forefinger of left hand.
Little finger of right hand waggles from side to side.

Kids giggle either way. Appearing in 1833 edition of “The Only True Mother Goose Melodies”

Baseball: Saint May’s and Viterbo, cancelled

Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 7, SUNY-Maritime 4

Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 7, Ripon 3

Softball: Ramapo 5, UW-LaCrosse 4

Softball: UW-LaCrosse 4, Rutgers-Camden 1

Tennis (women):   Fort Hays State 5, Winona State 2