Man sentenced to 76 1/2 years for triple murder

Johnny Lee Ellis was sentenced today to 76 1/2 years in prison for the triple murder last October in Mounds View of his girlfriend, Angela L. Vigen, her special-needs sister, Jennifer Vigen, and their 75-year-old mother, Jolyn Vigen.

Ellis, 39, pleaded guilty in May in Ramsey County District Court to three counts of second-degree intentional murder.

District Judge Edward Wilson decided decided to stick with the terms of a plea agreement that called for consecutive sentences of 25 1/2 years.

After family members called for stiff punishment, Ellis, when asked by the judge if he had anything to say replied, "I'm sorry."

At his plea hearing, Ellis offered little explanation for the deaths other than "I was high." He was living in the basement of the Vigens' home in the 5100 block of Sunnyside Road in Mounds View and was supposed to have entered an in-patient county-run chemical dependency treatment center a few weeks before the killings, according to testimony.

But Angela Vigen wanted him to wait to get into a better treatment center in the suburbs.

"I should have gone, I should have gone," he said, weeping at his plea hearing.

Jolyn Vigen moved with two of her daughters to Mounds View from Thief River Falls, Minn., 10 years ago after retiring from her job as director of the Head Start program in Pennington County. She and her husband, who predeceased her, had six children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The Ramsey County medical examiner determined that Jolyn and Jennifer Vigen bled to death from stab wounds. Angela Vigen died from multiple sharp-force injuries to her head and blunt-force injury to her forehead. A 2-inch portion of a broken knife blade was lodged in her brain.

Ellis said he killed the women on Oct. 23 or 24; their bodies were found Oct. 27 at their home.

Ellis twice tried to harm himself when he was apprehended by police. On Oct. 27, as authorities were processing the Vigens' house, Minneapolis police were called to an apartment at 3001 N. 3rd St. on a report that a man was threatening to kill himself because he had committed a crime in another city.

They found Ellis with a knife in a bedroom. He was threatening to kill himself and hurt the officers, police said. Although police used a Taser on him, he began to stab himself in the chest. He was shot again with the stun gun and officers wrestled the knife away.

He had a mental health evaluation to see if he was competent to stand trial, and in December, he was ruled competent.