A 43-year-old man has pleaded guilty to murdering his grandmother in her east-central Minnesota home with a hatchet.

Dustin G. Tinklenberg, 43, of Ogilvie, on Monday entered in Kanabec County District Court what is known as a Norgaard plea of guilty to second-degree intentional murder in connection with the death on Sept. 12, 2022, of 93-year-old Stella Anderson.

A Norgaard plea allows Tinklenberg to claim he could not recall committing the crime because he was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time.

The plea agreement between the prosecution and the defense calls for Tinklenberg to be sentenced to a term of 26 years. With credit for time in jail since his arrest, he is expected to serve roughly 16 1⁄2 years in prison and the balance on supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 13.

According to the criminal complaint:

A daughter of Anderson's arrived at the home in the 1300 block of Hwy. 23 in Ogilvie to visit and do chores and saw her mother on the couch. She shook her shoulder to wake her only to see injuries to her mother's face. She ran from the house and called law enforcement.

An autopsy found that Anderson suffered seven "sharp-force injuries" to her head, the complaint read. A deputy located a sheath for a hatchet in a bedroom. Two Ogilvie residents said Tinklenberg showed them a hatchet on the day of Anderson's death. The complaint made no mention of the suspected murder weapon's whereabouts.

Tinklenberg told law enforcement that he's had trouble with his grandmother going back many years.

He acknowledged being at Anderson's home on the day she was found dead. Asked what he knew about Anderson being killed with a hatchet, Tinklenberg said she "had somehow manipulated/altered the bacon he was eating, then said: 'So I lost it,' " the complaint read.