A 45-year-old man was charged Thursday with fatally shooting a neighbor in the back of the head in a Wright County home last year and then setting the residence on fire in an effort to conceal the crime.

Keith Richard Rossberg, of Annandale, was charged by a grand jury with first-degree and second-degree murder in the March 25, 2011, death of Devan Hawkinson, 63, in the victim's Annandale home. Rossberg has been detained since March 28, 2011, on an unrelated charge.

The two lived a block apart in the Eastview Mobile Home Park, just off Hwy. 55.

According to investigators:

Rossberg was angry because Hawkinson was involved with Rossberg's former girlfriend.

Rossberg shot Hawkinson and then started Hawkinson's home on fire in hopes of destroying evidence.

The fire burned itself out, leaving spent shell casings that were linked to a gun of Rossberg's that he had claimed was stolen.

Rossberg's criminal history in Minnesota, dating to 1987, includes convictions for disorderly conduct, numerous drunken-driving violations and drug possession.

PAUL WALSH