Elsa Segura sat between her attorneys, still as a statue, as the courtroom exploded around her.
She had already pleaded guilty for her role in the kidnapping of Monique Baugh, the 28-year-old Minneapolis real estate agent who was brutally murdered on New Year’s Eve in 2019, but emotion had been percolating in Baugh’s family.
Segura, 32, had previously been sentenced to life in prison for her role in that killing. But the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned that decision in February, citing insufficient evidence to convict her of aiding and abetting first-degree premeditated murder or premeditated attempted murder.
Her new trial was set to begin in October, but instead she pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of kidnapping to create great bodily harm and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

But before the plea hearing in Hennepin County District Court was over, Baugh’s family wanted Segura to feel their impossible pain.
Baugh was a mother to two little girls. Her mother, Wanda Williams Baugh, stood in front of Judge Mark Kappelhoff and explained how her granddaughters are living without their mom.
“This past Sunday, Monique’s youngest daughter, Legacy, lost her second front tooth,” Williams Baugh said. “I carefully placed her tooth under her pillow but she said she needed to put her mother’s picture under her pillow first. Legacy said she wanted the tooth fairy to see her mommy.”
For the first time since Baugh was murdered, Segura admitted to her role in the killing. Her lawyer, Sara Halimah, read the statement of facts into the official record and Segura explained how she knowingly set a plan into motion that would lead to Baugh’s kidnapping.