Tuesday: Sham marriage plan ends with stolen cash, shooting death

A Wisconsin man apparently killed a Michigan woman in Minneapolis after a Vegas rendezvous.

By Chao Xiong, Star Tribune

Last update: August 15, 2007 - 12:14 PM

A Michigan woman and a Wisconsin optometrist nearly twice her age met up at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas earlier this summer to exchange money for marital vows.

Dean A. Barrette, 44, of Cudahy, Wis., gave Alison M. Daniels, 24, a large envelope of money July 24 for her to enter into a sham marriage, court documents show. But instead, she fled with "a large amount" of the money, a witness traveling with Daniels told authorities.

Barrette and Daniels reunited last week at the Radisson University Hotel in Minneapolis, where he fatally shot her in the head, according to a first-degree murder charge filed Monday in Hennepin County District Court.

Daniels, of East Lansing, was found dead Aug. 6 in Room 840 of the hotel.

She checked in and went to the room at 1:28 p.m. that day, the complaint said. Hotel records show that she opened her door at 3:39 p.m. and that it opened again -- from the inside -- at 3:59 p.m.

According to the complaint: Daniels called a friend about 3:50 p.m. and said she was inside a Minneapolis hotel room with the man from "that situation in Vegas." Barrette had a gun to her head, she told her friend. The friend knew Daniels had stolen money from him, and when she asked the friend to wire her $4,000, the friend hung up, uncertain of her intentions.

Daniels' body was found about 6:30 p.m.

Authorities found signs of a struggle in the hotel room at 615 Washington Av. SE., near the University of Minnesota, including hair, a broken cell phone and the unplugged hotel phone lying on the floor.

"I am shocked," said her uncle, Gary Schafer. "I just don't understand."

'Marriage' reasons unclear

Schafer said family members didn't know Daniels was in Las Vegas or Minneapolis, and don't know why she would need the money. The family had no knowledge of Barrette and has no connections to his area of Wisconsin, Schafer said. Cudahy is about 20 miles from Milwaukee.

"A lot of people I talked to at her funeral [Saturday] didn't even know she was in Minneapolis," he said. "Not even her closest friends."

Daniels was working at a nursing home while attending classes at Lansing Community College to become an ultrasound technician, Schafer said, adding that she was the youngest of three children and "really, really loved kids."

Daniels graduated from high school in Haslett, Mich., in 2000.

The complaint gave no indication about why Barrette and Daniels would have been planning a sham marriage, and Minneapolis police did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Barrette is currently jailed in Milwaukee.

A woman who answered the phone at his home Monday declined comment.

Chao Xiong • 612-673-4391 • cxiong@startribune.com

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