Suspect in brutal killing of St. Paul mother charged with kidnapping and assault

A man suspected of brutally killing a St. Paul mother of three earlier this week raped a 16-year-old girl staying inside the East Side townhouse three times and also threatened to kill her, according to felony charges filed in Ramsey County District Court.

Ivan Dan Walker, 33, was arrested several hours after police were called to a home on the 1500 block of Jessamine Lane on Monday morning and found Shana Hollins dead and the teen "crying and shaking" when they arrived.

Documents say Walker was Hollins' boyfriend and stayed at the residence several nights a week. He came home late Sunday night and argued with Hollins in an upstairs bedroom where her body was found. He then came downstairs and grabbed and choked the girl, who was Hollins' cousin and visiting from out of town.

The girl bit Walker on the hand, but he dragged her into the kitchen, punched her and told her to be quiet and that "nobody is going to help you." He also told her he had killed her cousin.

After the original assault, he took her to the basement where he sexually assaulted her and threatened that he "might have to kill her, too," the complaint reads.

The teen told Walker that she would not report the sexual assault and got away when she persuaded him to let her use an upstairs bathroom. That is when she saw Hollins lying on a bed; her feet had turned purple.

The teen told investigators that she saw Walker snort cocaine with a straw and then placed it near Hollins' body to make the death look like an overdose. Walker then sexually assaulted the teen in the kitchen before he fled.

In addition to injuries from the rape, the teen suffered bruising on her face and abrasions on her neck.

Walker was arrested at 7th Place and Minnesota Street just after noon Monday. He told officers that he was not at the residence, but Hollins' son and neighbors placed him at the townhouse in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood on Sunday evening. A search warrant allowing for a physical examination of Walker turned up redness on the left hand between his thumb and forefinger, the area where the teen said she bit him.

Walker, who has a Stillwater address, was booked into the Ramsey County jail where he remains a suspect in Hollins' killing. Police continue to investigate her death as a homicide.

He was charged Wednesday with felony kidnapping and first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Walker was wanted in Missouri for violating his parole. He served six years of a 12-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to robbery charges in 2008. He was paroled in 2014. Sometime last fall he stopped showing up to appointments with his parole officer. A warrant was issued for his arrest on Oct. 30, said Karen Pojmann, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Staff writer Greg Stanley contributed to this report.