Eldredge found guilty in beating death of Oak Park Heights resident

When a jury Thursday found Nathan Eldredge guilty of first-degree murder, he sat silent and unmoving, just as he had done throughout his three-day trial.

That in itself isn't unusual among defendants. But Eldredge, who had chosen to represent himself in court, did nothing to defend himself against charges that he savagely beat Nils Johnson with a police baton and suffocated him with garbage bags.

"He put a lot of people through a lot of pain," said Johnson's sister, Solveig Colaianni, who questioned why Eldredge didn't plead guilty to spare Johnson's family the distress of a trial.

Johnson, 39, was found dead in April 2015 in his two-bedroom apartment in Oak Park Heights after his mother alerted police that he was missing.

Eldredge, who had no known address in Stillwater, fled to Illinois before he was caught.

The jury in Washington County District Court took less than two hours to find Eldredge, 25, guilty. Judge Richard Illka then sentenced him to the mandatory life in prison without release.

"It's probably the strangest case I've tried," said prosecutor Siv Yurichuk, who said she thought Eldredge couldn't admit he committed the crime.

Johnson had worked as a cook at McDonald's in Oak Park Heights for two years and had allowed Eldredge to stay at his apartment. Prosecutors said that Eldredge killed Johnson, then dragged his body into a closet, hid it and left the apartment, only to return later to have sex there with a young woman.

Police later found Johnson's body seated upright, his hands bound with black tape and a plastic bag sealed over his head.

At the start of the trial, the judge appointed public defender Luke Stellpflug to advise Eldredge on legal matters.

But Stellpflug said after leaving court Thursday that Eldredge asked very few questions of him and was "steadfast" in his determination to defend himself. He said he's seen other defendants do little to defend themselves in court, but not like this.

Yurichuk said Eldredge is a dangerous criminal and characterized him as a stranger who killed Johnson in a seemingly random murder and then tried to take over his apartment, his vehicle and even his identity.