Mother of slain Twin Cities real estate agent testifies she ‘knew something was wrong’

Wanda Williams Baugh was holding her little granddaughters in the middle of a chaotic crime scene on New Year’s Eve in 2019 when she noticed something on the floor.

It was a purple key with a green butterfly on it.

Police hadn’t noticed it amid the children’s toys and a toddler’s bouncy jumper strewn across the living room where a Christmas tree strung with lights glowed brightly.

Williams Baugh had made the key special for her daughter, Monique Baugh, when they moved in together. That night, her daughter had been missing for several hours.

“I immediately knew something was wrong,” Williams Baugh recalled.

The retrial of Lyndon Wiggins began this week on charges he is the alleged mastermind who orchestrated a series of events that led to the kidnapping and murder of Baugh and the attempted murder of Jon Mitchell-Momoh, the father of Baugh’s children. Three people are in prison for the crimes: Cedric Berry and Berry Davis, who were sentenced to life in prison for carrying out the attacks; and Elsa Segura, Wiggins’ girlfriend and a former Hennepin County probation officer who pleaded guilty to kidnapping for setting the plot in motion.

Williams Baugh was calm and composed answering questions from assistant Hennepin County attorney Paige Starkey, but she began quietly sobbing when a photo of the key was shown.

She “didn’t particularly care” for Momoh, or his lifestyle as a rapper. She testified he was often under the influence, had been unfaithful to her daughter, and didn’t provide for his kids but flaunted money on social media. That included two videos taken inside Williams Baugh’s home where he bathed himself in cash inside her shower and then laundered the money inside her dryer.

“I was disgusted, furious,” she recalled.

Shortly before the attack, she told her daughter, “His image will get us killed for a like, for a love, for a share.”

Baugh was hardworking — a young mother who wanted more children and had found a first calling as a server before moving to real estate. She thrived in industries where her personality could shine. She was close with her mom, but kept some of her private life for herself. They moved in together after Baugh split from Momoh. She told her mom not to ask any questions. Her mom, working a job and going to school, wasn’t always let inside the relationship, but could feel her daughter being pulled back to Momoh around the holidays in 2019.

Starkey asked Williams Baugh how her daughter managed the daily care of her kids while trying to provide for them at the same time.

“Dedicated. Loving. She cherished her babies,” Williams Baugh said of her daughter’s parenting style. Several supporters dabbed their eyes in the gallery.

On the night of the shooting, Frank called. He had seen something on the news that a woman had been found shot to death in north Minneapolis and it was tied to the shooting at Williams Baugh’s home.

“He was yelling, kind of frantic,” she recalled. A Minneapolis police officer was in her living room. She asked if it was true. He nodded, and said he was sorry.

Baugh asked him, “What do I do now?”

She went to the hospital. Then to the funeral home, where she finally saw her daughter again.

Wiggins had put Momoh on his record label with promises of a $1 million deal and the two spent long stretches of time together in California building their careers. Momoh was featured on tracks with the late rappers Nipsey Hussle and XXXTentacion, both wildly popular before they were shot to death in unrelated incidents. He testified that Wiggins was “in his feelings” because Momoh had moved to a higher stage of his career. They both had been involved in criminal cases over drug dealing at the time of the killing and Wiggins allegedly believed Mitchell-Momoh had snitched on him to police.

In court, Momoh offhandedly tossed slurs and curses at Wiggins and called him a “dusty bum.” He brought up multiple women Wiggins was sleeping with and a baby’s mother whom Wiggins had paid off. He also spoke about Segura, the Hennepin County probation officer who was dating Wiggins and set the plan to kidnap Baugh in motion.

“I would see them together a lot, doing all sorts of things,” Momoh testified as objections came from Wiggins’ legal team. “He would have me go to her crib and there’d be illicit things that I’d pick up.”

Momoh said things started to get “really spicy” between the two men at a hookah lounge.

“We had a big stare down,” Momoh said. “I was with my group of people. He was with his group of people.”

“There will be no evidence that Elsa wanted Jon or Monique dead. No evidence Cedric Berry or Berry Davis wanted them dead. The common denominator is Lyndon Wiggins,” Filipski said. “He is the single piece of thread that ties all of them together.”

Defense attorney Sarah Gad countered that by saying there were plenty of people who had a reason to go after Momoh for showing off money on social media. She said that nearly six years later, investigators will not provide clear evidence that Wiggins orchestrated the crime.

“The people responsible for this tragedy were caught, quickly, based on ironclad evidence,” Gad said, adding that no clear motive for Wiggins to want to hurt Baugh or Momoh has ever been established. “He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t jealous. He wasn’t threatened and didn’t need money.”

The trial is also serving as a reminder of the ongoing trauma the loss of Baugh has created.

Momoh has been in legal trouble off and on since 2020, mostly involving drugs and guns. Williams Baugh now has custody of her two grandchildren, who also spend some weekends with Frank Baugh.

His 911 call was played in court.