DULUTH - An Ely, Minn., teen who stabbed his younger brother and left him to bleed out near a gully was found guilty of second-degree attempted murder earlier this week in St. Louis County District Court.
Ely teen guilty of attempted murder after stabbing younger brother
Michael William Haapala left his brother by a gully before he was discovered by a passerby.
January 25, 2023 at 4:31PM
Michael William Haapala, 18, waived his right to a jury trial and Judge Robert C. Friday issued the ruling Tuesday.
According to the complaint, Haapala's then-13-year-old-brother was found by a passerby in a gully on the 800 block of Miners Drive the afternoon on Oct. 8, 2020. He had been stabbed upward of 13 times and, while at Essentia Health in Duluth and still unable to talk, used a system of pointing and spelling to indicate that his brother had stabbed him.
Haapala told authorities that he invited his younger brother to go for a walk around 2 a.m. and brought along a kitchen knife, which was later found freshly washed and hidden in his closet along with shoes that were still wet with what seemed to be blood. He admitted to stabbing him more than once, dragging him down by a lake and assuming that he would likely bleed out. Haapala said he then went home.
The sentencing date has not yet been posted.
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