An Iowa woman has received a 40-year term for killing a woman in a Minneapolis apartment, then taking the victim’s car and crashing it in southern Minnesota with her body inside.
Margot G. Lewis, 33, was sentenced Thursday in Hennepin County District Court after being convicted of second-degree murder in connection with the June 2024 stabbing death of Liara Tsai, 35, inside the victim’s home in the 700 block of E. 16th Street.
With credit for time in jail since her arrest, Lewis is expected to serve roughly 25½ years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
Lewis, of North Liberty in east-central Iowa, was also charged in Olmsted County, where the crash occurred, with felony interference of a dead body. In light of the murder sentence, prosecutors on Friday dismissed that case.
Neither criminal complaint mentioned a motive for the killing. Tsai’s former spouse told police that Lewis flew in from Boston on June 21, 2024, for an eight-day stay with Tsai, the murder charge noted. The former spouse added that Lewis and Tsai had a “sordid and emotionally challenging” relationship.
Steven Seuling, a friend of Tsai’s, told the Minnesota Star Tribune soon after the killing that she worked for him at times as a DJ at various events. He added that Tsai was a “community and trans activist. She was very, very much more than just a DJ.”
A deputy sent on June 22, 2024, to the crash scene along Interstate 90 south of Eyota saw Tsai’s car in the center median and Lewis sitting in a folding chair that a bystander provided. The deputy determined she was speeding when the car hit a guardrail.
