Chavez-Nelson admits killing man who flirted with his girlfriend, says it wasn't premeditated

The prosecutor, the defense attorneys and Shavelle Chavez Nelson, the defendant, know that he shot and killed Palagor "Paul" Jobi outside Nina's Grill in Burnsville, according to proceedings Tuesday on the opening day of Nelson's trial in Dakota County District Court.

Prosecutor Kathy Keena told the jury in her opening statement that Nelson committed the murder with premeditation. Defense attorney Erin Carey told jurors he didn't.

Nelson, 32, is charged with first-degree murder and second-degree intentional murder in the Sept. 22, 2013, death of Jobi, 23, of Savage.

"My client did, in fact, shoot Palagor Jobi and he died a terrible, violent death," Carey told the jury of seven men and seven women. Two alternates will hear testimony; only 12 members will deliberate.

"You are going to hear a lot of bad things about my client," Carey said. "What you're not going to see is premeditation."

In her opening, Keena went through the night of Jobi's death in detail:

Jobi was with his cousins Marachan and Wod Talian the night of Sept. 21-22. They arrived at Nina's about midnight or 12:30 a.m. Nelson arrived about 1 a.m. with two women — his girlfriend, Ashley Conrade, and his ex-girlfriend, Anarae Schunk.

At closing time, Jobi and his group and Nelson and his group ended up outside the bar, smoking. Jobi was drunk, with a blood alcohol content of 0.26 percent, and told Conrade, "Wow, you look beautiful tonight."

"That comment would cost him his life," Keena said. Nelson told Jobi, "Don't talk to her, she's mine." The men were separated but continued to glare, and eventually Jobi punched Nelson in the face.

According to testimony, Nelson spun, pulled a gun from his waistband and shot Jobi. Keena said the victim was initially shot twice. When he fell, Nelson fired six more times; four of those were to the back of Jobi's head.

Jurors saw gruesome photos of Jobi lying in a yard-long pool of blood and of bullet cartridges and fragments found in a wide arc around his body, including several embedded in the blood.

They heard from two Burnsville police officers who were among the first to arrive at the scene and a former officer who collected evidence as part of the crime scene unit.

"It was apparent from their reaction they had seen something pretty shocking, pretty violent," he said.

Daniel Anselment, then a Burnsville officer, was there about two hours after the shooting to document and collect evidence. Keena led him piece by piece through a dozen or more bullet cartridges, bullet fragments and other evidence found around Jobi's body. Jurors passed around each piece of evidence.

Anselment, a forensics expert, said the blood pattern around Jobi's head and the gouges the bullets made in the pavement below showed that bullets traveled with "significant force and velocity."

Carey told jurors she and co-defense counsel Brenda Lightbody were "surprise guests here today." Nelson had fired them last week, telling the judge he disagreed on strategy and questioned their experience with first-degree murder cases. He represented himself at jury selection, but on Friday changed his mind.

Carey didn't go into what evidence the defense would present. She said Nelson is a "womanizer, charmer, cheater. You probably aren't going to like him. You might hate him.