Murder charges say teen shot driver in St. Paul at random; he's charged as an adult

Murder charges in adult court have been filed against a boy who was 15 years old when he drove behind a motorist heading home from a St. Paul grocery store and allegedly shot her in the head at random.

Melvin D. Williams, now 16, was certified Monday in Ramsey County District Court for prosecution as an adult on charges of second-degree intentional and drive-by murder in connection with the shooting of 34-year-old Yuliya "Julia" Li on Feb. 16, 2022.

Williams, of St. Paul, was arrested soon after the shooting and charged initially by what is called a juvenile petition. A murder conviction in adult court would mean a far more severe sentence for Williams than what he would have received being found guilty in juvenile court.

He remains in custody in Ramsey County in lieu of $500,000 bail and is due in court Friday. Public court records do not list an attorney for him.

Police have said it appeared that Li was targeted at random and did nothing to provoke being shot.

"Now that the youth has been certified to stand trial as an adult by the judge," said Ramsey County Attorney's Office spokesperson Dennis Gerhardstein, "we will do everything in our power to ensure that there is appropriate accountability for the alleged actions by the accused.

"We will seek justice for the victim, [Yuliya Li], her family, and our community."

She left the Twin Cities to work in brand management and marketing for General Electric and Procter & Gamble before returning to St. Paul in 2016 to pursue a master's degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas. Li joined H.B. Fuller in a marketing role in July 2017, and she most recently worked as a global business director.

Her husband, Ubong Udoessien, was traveling in his native Nigeria when he learned of her death. Udoessien immediately booked a flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan, to support Li's family and to help arrange for her body to be flown back to the country.

Speaking from Almaty with the Star Tribune about a month after his wife's death, Udoessien described their many hiking adventures together and their mutual passions for cooking, art and music.

"Julia showed me what love was," he said. "What I probably miss most about Julia is her laugh. She laughed with her whole heart. She was my world."

Along with her husband, Li is survived by her parents and her younger sister, who live in Kazakhstan.

Police were called about 6:40 p.m. to the 1000 block of Payne Avenue in St. Paul's East Side, where they saw Li slumped over in the driver's seat of her SUV, which was still running and with the gear in drive. Officers saw she was shot in the head. Li was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital less than an hour later.

Li had been heading home from a grocery store, where she bought food for a dinner party. Williams' car was behind her SUV and moved closer as she waited to turn left from northbound Payne onto Cook Avenue. As Li started her turn, "a muzzle flash from the driver's side" of the car was captured on video.

Williams sped north on Payne and entered his home in the 1200 block of Hazelwood Street. He was first arrested and incarcerated in Hennepin County, where he has been accused of crimes there as well. Because of his age at the time, state law prevents disclosure of those allegations.