Prison for man who fatally shot his wife as their children were nearby in family’s Minnesota home

A man has received a 30-year prison term for fatally shooting his wife with their children close by inside the family’s home west of the Twin Cities.

Bryan W. Demarais, 36, was sentenced Tuesday in Meeker County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and child endangerment in connection with the shooting on Dec. 28, 2023, of Kayla M. Demarais, 29, at their home west of Dassel in the 22000 block of 713th Avenue.

With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Bryan Demarais is expected to serve the first 19 years in prison and the balance on supervised release.

“My beautiful sister was taken from this world, leaving 2 young children and a family devastated,” Casey Watts wrote on an online fundraising campaign that was started soon after the shooting to help the family with expenses related to Kayla Demarais’ death.

According to the charges and a related court document:

Bryan Demarais called 911 late in the morning and said, “I would like to report a murder.” He went on to say he shot his wife while their children were in the home.

Officers arrived and arrested Demarais. They saw his wife on the living room floor. Emergency medical personnel declared her dead at the scene. He shot her nine times with a rifle.

In a jailhouse interview, Demarais said he and his wife argued the previous evening, after the children went to bed, about their financial problems and his suspicions that she was having an affair.

While the couple were in bed the next morning, he looked at her phone after it buzzed and allegedly saw messages from someone. He began yelling, then told their children before he left for work that he was divorcing their mother.

A professionally trained interviewer spoke with the son, who said his father went to work but was soon sent home. The boy said he “heard a gunshot and saw [his mother] fall over,” the criminal complaint read.