Hudson homicide suspect pleads guilty in Minnesota case

A Woodbury man accused in the shooting death of a teenager in Wisconsin pleaded guilty in Washington County District Court on Monday to a felony charge of unlawful possession of a weapon.

Christopher S. Ledesma, 29, is still awaiting prosecution of first-degree intentional homicide charges in Wisconsin in the slaying of 19-year-old Kelly Lynn Dahm, whose body was found in a car outside the St. Croix County Government Center in Hudson on Sept. 20.

Judge Mary Hannon sentenced Ledesma to five years in prison on the weapon count but dropped a second felony charge of making terroristic threats as part of the plea agreement with the county attorney's office.

"It was a good result," said County Attorney Doug Johnson, who noted that the weapon possession was the more serious of the two charges.

Ledesma appeared in court Monday in dark gray jail clothes with his wrists and ankles in shackles. He said in court that he's being treated for depression and schizophrenia.

Woodbury police arrested Ledesma, who was in possession of a handgun, after a disturbance outside his parents' home the night Dahm was killed. He was on probation from a Wisconsin prison where he had served time after a stabbing incident in Somerset in 1996.

Dahm, who lived in Maplewood, was a 2007 graduate of Tartan High School in Oakdale, where she had played varsity softball. Police described her as Ledesma's on-again, off-again girlfriend.

Eric Johnson, district attorney in St. Croix County, said his office will seek to move Ledesma out of prison in Minnesota temporarily to hear homicide charges in Wisconsin. He said he didn't know when that will happen.

Hannon gave Ledesma credit for 143 days served in the Washington County jail.

Kevin Giles • 612-673-4432