Inmate pleads guilty in '96 murder of Minneapolis man

Formerly of Minneapolis, Rommal Bennett had been charged with killing Wally John Lundin, who disappeared after using a bar's restroom.

By ROCHELLE OLSON, Star Tribune

Last update: October 12, 2009 - 10:29 PM

A former Minneapolis man entered a surprise guilty plea to murder on Monday, more than 13 years after a 31-year-old man was found strangled and bound in his northeast Minneapolis home.

Rommal Bennett, 45, pleaded guilty in Hennepin County District Court before Judge George McGunnigle just as jury selection was to start in his trial in the killing of Wally John Lundin. Bennett didn't provide any details, but he pleaded guilty to the crime with which he was charged: second-degree intentional murder. McGunnigle is set to sentence him at 1:45 p.m. on Friday.

Bennett was serving a life sentence for murder in New York when a charge against him was made public last October.

He was connected to the killing through DNA testing on a condom found in Lundin's home, according to the complaint against him.

Lundin was last seen going to the restroom at the Gay '90s bar in Minneapolis about 11:30 p.m. the Saturday before he was found dead in August 1996; his friends thought he left the bar shortly thereafter.

He had gone to the bar and a downtown block party earlier in the evening with friends and co-workers, police said at the time.

Lundin's body was found on a bed in his northeast Minneapolis duplex by co-workers who became concerned when he didn't show up for work at American Express Financial Advisors on a Monday. He was gagged, and his hands and feet were bound behind his back. He was wearing only underwear.

In June 2007 the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension determined that swabbings from the inside of a condom found at the scene matched Lundin, while swabbings from the outside didn't rule out Bennett, whose DNA was in the state database for convicted offenders. The testing determined that 99.9999997 percent of the population could be ruled out.

After Bennett was found in a New York prison, an additional DNA sample was taken and sent to Minnesota. Testing of the bindings and ligatures on Lundin's body showed a mixture of DNA from two people, one of whom was Lundin. The testing determined Bennett could not be excluded as the other contributor.

During the investigation, police found a man identified only as L.K., who said he had a relationship with Bennett in 1998. Bennett told L.K. he had a drinking problem because he had strangled a man who was tied up, according to the complaint against Bennett. "The defendant kept telling L.K. how he had to drink to get over the guilt from the picture he had in his mind of the eyes of this person bulging out as he was strangling him," the complaint said.

Bennett's lawyer Michael Holland declined to comment.

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747

Recent Local + Metro stories

Keillor performance to be beamed to movie theaters - October 12, 2009

Keillor performance to be beamed to movie theaters - It may be the next best thing to seeing Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" live. More