Guilty verdict in fatal stabbing of resident at state-run mental health group home in West St. Paul

Jurors have convicted a 43-year-old man of murder for stabbing a fellow resident at a state-operated mental health group home in West St. Paul.

John C. Adams II was found guilty Wednesday in Dakota County District Court of second-degree intentional murder in connection with the killing on Feb. 17, 2020, of 68-year-old David E. Rahn at the Christensen House in the 1500 block of Christensen Avenue.

At the time of the attack, the home was providing care for people under civil commitment for a mental illness and then temporarily discharged from a DHS treatment facility, such as the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter.

Adams remains jailed ahead of sentencing, which is scheduled for Dec. 20.

Adams’ criminal history also includes a third-degree assault conviction in 2001 in Hennepin County in connection with smashing a glass in a woman’s face and cutting her at the 8th Street Grill in downtown Minneapolis.

The court found Adams to be “a clear danger to the safety of others” and mentally incompetent to stand trial. His sentence was set aside in exchange for him being put under Security Hospital supervision for at least three years.

According to criminal complaint:

The staffer told a 911 dispatcher that she didn’t hear anything further from the room and said “something isn’t right.”

A police officer arrived and saw a shirtless Adams running from the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses across the street and into the group home. In a Kingdom Hall trash can, police found a “badly bent” and bloody kitchen knife in a garbage bag. Another bag held a pair of blood-soaked gloves.

Officers found Rahn in his room with stab wounds to his neck and back. Medics declared him dead at the scene.

Adams gave various accounts to police about how and why Rahn was stabbed.