Jurors convicted an Iowa woman of killing another woman in her Minneapolis apartment and crashing the victim’s car on a southern Minnesota interstate hours later with the body inside.
Margot G. Lewis, 33, was found guilty Monday in Hennepin County District Court of second-degree murder in connection with the June 2024 stabbing death of 35-year-old Liara Tsai inside the victim’s home in the 700 block of E. 16th Street.
Lewis remains jailed ahead of sentencing, which is scheduled for Nov. 18. The jury additionally found there were several aggravating factors in Tsai’s killing that could lead to an especially lengthy sentence for Lewis.
Lewis, of North Liberty in east-central Iowa, was also charged in Olmsted County, where the crash occurred, with felony interference of a dead body. A verdict in that case remains pending as of Tuesday.
Neither criminal complaint mentioned a motive for the killing. Tsai’s former spouse told police that Lewis flew in from Boston on June 21, 2024, for an eight-day stay with Tsai, the murder charge noted. The former spouse added that Lewis and Tsai had a “sordid and emotionally challenging” relationship.
Steven Seuling, a friend of Tsai’s, told the Minnesota Star Tribune soon after the killing that she worked for him at times as a DJ at various events and added that she was a “community and trans activist. She was very, very much more than just a DJ.”
A deputy sent on June 22, 2024, to the crash scene along Interstate 90 south of Eyota saw Tsai’s car in the center median and Lewis sitting in a folding chair that a bystander provided. The deputy determined Lewis was speeding when she hit a guardrail.
