One woman dead, another arrested in St. Paul stabbing

Star Tribune

Last update: March 5, 2009 - 11:22 PM

A St. Paul woman was stabbed to death, and another woman arrested a short time later, after an early morning altercation Thursday at a West Side apartment building.

Jennifer M. Linnear, 26, died after being stabbed once outside a building in the 600 block of Oakland Avenue, police spokesman Pete Crum said.

Crum said that the victim went to the building with her husband and was stabbed between 1 and 1:30 a.m. by a 21-year-old woman living in an upstairs unit there.

Police learned of the stabbing after the husband took his injured wife to Regions Hospital, where she died shortly after she arrived, Crum said. Police arrested the 21-year-old suspect at her apartment less than an hour later, according to Ramsey County jail records.

Crum said police would not discuss the relationship between the couple and the suspect, or what led to the stabbing. The Ramsey County attorney's office is expected to review the case today for possible charges, he said.

Monique Utley, who lives next door to the suspect, said Thursday afternoon that she had heard her neighbor arguing with a male visitor in the neighbor's apartment about the time of the incident, and that she believed the man may have assaulted the neighbor before he left in a sport-utility vehicle.

Utley said she believes there was another woman in the SUV but only the suspect and the male visitor had been inside the apartment.

According to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the suspect had a prior conviction for a felony drug offense in Hennepin County two years ago. Utley said she didn't know her neighbor well, but that the woman seemed friendly: "She was cool," Utley said. "Everyone says she was cool."

ANTHONY LONETREE

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