WABASHA, Minn — A prison sentence of 35-1/2 years was levied for the grisly shooting of a Wabasha woman by her ex-boyfriend at the Half Moon boat landing on the Mississippi river. Craig Alan Hameister, age 45, earlier had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a plea deal. Originally he was charged with premeditated murder. The sentence was issued by Judge Dwight Luhmann, who was loan from nearby Winona County.  Hameister shot 36-year-old Melissa Hunt in the face at the remote boat landing in June. Despite portions of her jaw and teeth missing, she managed to drive a mile for help,.She  died shortly at the Wabasha hospital. Hameister was arrested hiding up a tree 40 miles south near Chester Woods Park in Olmsted County. He lived near at Chester. The case was prosecuted by the state attorney general’s office at the request of Wabasha County Attorney Matthew Stinson.

Earlier: Memorial gifts for slain Wabasha woman

Earlier: Autopsy: Gun involved n boat landing murder

Earlier: Bail at $2 million in Kellogg boat landing case

Earlier: Chatfield man, hiding up tree, arrested in slaying

Earlier: Wabasha woman fatally bludgeoned, maybe shot

Verbatim

Keith Ellison, Minnesota attorney general: “Melissa should still be with us today. Those who were lucky enough to have known Melissa say she was kind, caring, and loved her daughters dearly. Her loss is such a tragedy, and I’m keeping her family in my prayers. I’m grateful to everyone who helped bring Melissa’s killer to justice.”

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota soon will have a prohibition on using software to strip clothes off a person in a digital image and leaving her —or him — all naked. The nudification techniques have been in growing use to embarrass people who suddenly find themselves naked online — except the nude details are boilerplate and not theirs. Victims seldom are amused despite whatever perverse delights begets the perpetrator. O r just plain ol’ meanness. The new law easily passed the Legislature —132-1 in the House and 65-0 the Senate. Governor Tim Walz lost no time signing off on the law. Said Walz: “This bill makes clear that using technology to create fake, non-consensual intimate images is unacceptable and puts Minnesota at the forefront of addressing the harms of AI.”

Promotional instructions with readily available and easily used image-manipulation software. Next step, not shown here: Plugging in intimate details from other images

Packed parking lot. For grand opening of Kickass jerky shop in Goodview. The energetic and entrepreneurial jerky-master Jeremy Littel invited vendors to set up tents next door for an early start to the coming weekend’s 100-Mile Garage Sale. Image: Steve Lunde

Jerky joint. Overseeing the tidy sales floor is a Winona-themed mural. Littel sees the shop becoming a must-visit stop for travelers off U.S. Highway 61 in Goodview. The main lure: The beef jerky he’s been seasoning and drying for for years in his home basement. Also his branded cheeses, coffee and snacks. Through a side entrance Littel has his brand-name Black Lantern bourbon and whisky.

Earlier: Goal: A world headquarters for jerky

Earlier: Imagine this: Goodview as a global jerky epicenter

WINONA, Minn. — The attorney for Baby Angel’s mother has called for stronger community support for pregnant women and new mothers. Kurt Knuesel issued his call after the sentencing of Nichole Baechle, who secretly gave birth and floated the body off in the Mississippi River in 2011. Knuesel, who represented Baechle, said that resources must be available “especially during moments of crisis.” About the Baechle case, Knuesel defended the plea agreement that reduced the charge. He said original manslaughter charge was not supported by medical evidence about the cause of death nor by ambiguity about whether the baby was born alive The plea agreement, which trimmed the charge to a misdemeanor — interference with a dead body — was a more accurate and fair fit to the facts of the case, he said.

Earlier: Verdict for Baby Angel mother: Probation

Knuesel. His practice focuses on criminal defense. A Winona native.

The price of flowers. The trade journal Florists’ Review reported medium-size arrangements for Mother’s Day nationwide are up $5 to $10 at local shops. Roughly 88% are imported by plane from Latin America, mostly Mexico, and shipping costs have spiraled due to President Trump’s global tariff hikes — a problem compounded by global oil shortages due to Trump’s Iran war. Diesel fuel reached $5.80 a gallon this weekend, jet fuel even more.

Downtown display.  Florist Nora Morawiecki moved a few potted floors to the sidewalk to catch the morning on Main Street. Image: Steve Lunde

Baseball: UW-Whitewater 11, UW-LaCrosse 9

Baseball: UW-Whitewater 11, UW-LaCrosse 7

Baseball: Rochester Community 13, Minnesota North Hibbing 3

Softball: Saint Mary’s 7, St. Olaf 1

Softball: Saint Benedict 9, Saint Mary’s 7

Tennis (women): Adolphus 4, UW-LaCrosse 0

ONALASKA, Wis. — A Home Depot supervisor has been arrested on an allegation of raping a teen-age employee in his car in the store parking lot. Felipe Gael Vazquez Rodea, 21, of La Crosse, faces three felony charges:

> Sexual assault.

> Child enticement.

> Exposure of his maleness to a child.

The employee, age 17, told police that Vazquez Rodea offered to take her to McDonald’s during her 15-minute break. The rape occurred, she said, back at the Home Depot parking lot in his car. The girl said she fled into store, where, according to the criminal complaint, fellow employes saw her distress. She called police in the evening. This was at the Home Depot in the retailing complex on Marketplace Drive in the LaCrosse suburb of Onalaska. Home Depot‘s management has placed Vazquez Rodea on leave until legalities are sorted through,

Nonskid soles on the spillway.This fisherman found an exclusive spot on the Mississippi River for opening-day fishing: On the spillway at Lock and Dam 5A between Minnesota City and Fountain City. Image: Steve Lunde

ST. PAUL, Minn. —Attorney General Keith Ellison is going after a couple he says milked $2.4 million from two non-profit entities they operate in Minneapolis. Ellison accuses Larry and Sharon Coo of stealing charitable assets to fund luxury travel. The suit lists payments for villas, ocean cruises, and high-end hotels. The Cooks run Real Believers Faith Center, a nonprofit church, and Les Jolies School of Dance, a nonprofit dance studio. The lawsuit claims more than $1.3 million of Real Believers’ charitable assets were misused between from 2018 to 2024. The lawsuit estimates assets of $800,00 were misused during the same period.

MINNEAPOLIS — After months of foot-dragging, lies and cover-up, the Trump administration has turned over documents related indirectly to the January shooting of Renee Good on a Minneapolis street. The documents involve an earlier court case against ICE deportation agent Jonathan Ross. He was the agent who killed Good and who, months earlier, also shot a fleeing motorist in a traffic stop. The cases have a common denominator: Whether force was excessive. The attorney representing the man in the earlier case, Eric Newmark, said that government documents he sought have now been surrendered to a judge who demanded access to them. The judge is now reviewing the documents to decide if and how to release them, Nemark said. Unsettled question: Could the release of the Munoz- Guatemala documents signal a federal change in concealing documents involving Ross in the Renee Good slaying.

Anatomy of an ICE arrest

In June 2025, seven months before the Renee Good death, Jonathan Ross was a leader of a team of agents who went to arrest a Minneapolis man who was in the United States illegally. This, according to court documents, was what allegedly happened:

Agents had surrounded the home of Roberto Munoz-Guatemala and his wife Patricia. Munoz-Guatemala left in his car. FBI agents activated emergency sirens and lights and ordered him to pull over. He did not. Ross maneuvered his vehicle diagonally in front of Munoz-Guatemela to force him to stop. Ross approached Munoz-Guatemala’s vehicle and ordered him to put the transmission in park. Munoz-Guatemala’s raised his hands. Ross ordered him to lower his window all the way and warned that he would break the window if he did not. Ross used a device known as a spring-loaded device to punch out the rear driver’s side window and reached inside the car to unlock the driver’s door. Munoz-Guatemala drove off while Ross’ arm was caught in the vehicle. He accelerated, dragging Ross down the street. Ross fired his Taser. The electric pongs penetrated Munoz-Guatemala in the head, face and shoulder but did not incapacitate him. Munoz-Guatemala dragged Ross the length of a football field. Ross was knocked free from the vehicle by force after Munoz-Guatemala bumped over a curb. Ross suffered multiple cuts, and abrasions to his knee, elbow and face. He described “pretty excruciating pain.” At a hospital he received dozens of stitches.

Munoz-Guatemala was bleeding from his injuries and had a woman call 911, saying that he was assaulted and didn’t know whether the person trying to stop him was an officer. He was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous or deadly weapon. A jury found Munoz-Guatemala guilty. He “should reasonably have known” that Ross was a law enforcement officer and not a private citizen attempting an assault on him, the jury concluded.

Earlier: Demand to FBI: Cough up ICE homicide evidence

Earlier: Good’s family wary of federal probe of death

Earlier: Analysis: ICE agent shot Renee Good four times

Earlier: ICE agent ID’d in Minneapolis raid death

Earlier: Woman slain in ICE raid a mother, a poet

Earlier: Woman shot dead in Minneapolis ICE raid

Governor drops line. Tim Walz joined an estimated 500,000 anglers on the first day of Minnesota’s 2026 fishing season. The governor did his fishing on the St. Croix River at Stillwater, 18 miles upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi. Skies were clear in the 60s.

HOUSTON, Minn, — A Caledonia man was hurt when his vehicle ran off the roadway and struck a guardrail and a tree between Hokah and Houston. Dustin Dale Dettmann, age 46, was taken 24 miles to a LaCrosse hospital with injuries described as sustainable. The accident was on U.S. Highway 16 about 8:10 a.m. Dettmann was westbound toward Houston in a 2018 Ford Explorer. The airbag deployed, said Houston County deputies.

Mount Hood daffodils in full glory. On a happy bed of vinca with their own dainty lavender celebration of spring. In a backyard near Winona County’s Farmers Park. Images: Steve Lunde

HOMER, Minn. — A caretaker reported intruders prowling around the abandoned twin Briarcombe mansions off Knowlton Lane behind the Bridges golf course. Deputies found kids engaged in the dangerous game of “urban adventuring,” as it’s called . This was about 10;30 p.m., long after dark. Deputies rounded up the intruders, all teenagers, and called their parents. The once-glorious mansions, now 114 years old and long vacant, have been occasional magnets for thrill-seekers and relic-collectors despite posted no trespass warnings.

Earlier: Briarscombe mystery: Urban exploration escapade?

Earlier: Urban explorer gravely hurt in six-floor fall

Baseball: Mary 11, Winona State 9

Baseball: Macalester 11, Saint Mary’s 4

Baseball: Saint John’s 9, Saint Mary’s 8

Baseball: UW-LaCrosse 13, UW-River Falls 7

Baseball: St. Cloud Tech 15, Rochester Community 1

Softball: Augustana 5, Winona State 0

Softball: UW-River Falls 2, UW-LaCrosse 1

Baseball: LaCrosse Logan Rangers 11, LaCrescent-Logan Lancers 0

Baseball: Stevens Point Panthers 6, LaCrosse Central River Hawks 0

Baseball: Stevens Point Panthers 6, LaCrosse Central River Hawks 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Democrats in the Minnesota House are demanding a ban on firearms in the Capitol complex. Pete Johnson, a Duluth Democrat, made the demand in a letter to House Speaker Lisa Demut. The letter was in response to the arrest of Representative Walter Hudson of St. Paul with a loaded firearm in his car the night of March 28. Hudson had been in and out of the Capitol during the day and was consuming alcohol off-campus at lunch and later at one if not more other drinking establishments. Said Johnson: “The only guns in Capitol spaces should be held by law enforcement, in line with many other states, blue and red.”  Johnson noted that only seven states allow firearms at their capitols.

Earlier: Two legislators caught after night out

Legislating can be heated. In a U.S. House debate in 1798 Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont and Roger Griswold of Connecticut grabbed tongs from the House fireplace and went at it. Image: Contemporaneous woodcut

Atop Stockton Hill. Bronks farm stand, known mostly for fall pumpkins, has straw as an interim commodity. Next will be veggies from the fields out back. Later: Pumpkins. The straw is self-service: Drive in, load a bale, leave $8. In these  parts the honor system is alive and well. Image: Steve Lunde