St. Anthony killer's apologies fall on deaf ears

Corey Lee Gaustad apologized profusely, quoted Bible verses and talked of the resurrection before he was sentenced Thursday for fatally shooting Christine Rose Nguyen, 48, and trying to shoot her teenage daughter outside their New Brighton home in July.

Ramsey County District Judge Dale B. Lindman accepted the plea agreement Gaustad signed in January and sentenced him to the mandatory life in prison for first-degree murder and 15 years for attempted first-degree murder. The sentences are to be served consecutively. Gaustad will serve at least 40 years before he is eligible for release.

The 22-year-old St. Anthony man wore a long-sleeve undershirt under his jail-issued orange jumpsuit and stood between his attorneys at the hearing.

"It's impossible for me to find the words to express how sorry I am for taking Christine's life and for trying to take Anne's life," he said when it was his turn to speak. "I hope all of you will accept my apologies. If you can't, I understand. I can't forgive myself."

He talked about seeing Nguyen again at the resurrection and of Nguyen and her daughter being reunited in heaven.

According to the charges, Gaustad reportedly had been stalking Nguyen's daughter, Anne Rose Schaper, now 18, for months and had a "hit list" of people he intended to target during a shooting spree.

Gaustad and Schaper had met four years earlier at church and had been "close friends" since the summer of 2007, the complaint said. But that changed last March when she told him she no longer wanted to date him "because he was showing violent tendencies," the complaint said.

On July 17, Gaustad, in his car, followed Nguyen and Schaper from the Cub Foods in St. Anthony. He thought they were going to a Roseville clothing store where the girl worked. He was armed with two handguns and seven loaded magazines, with 15 to 17 bullets in each.

"His plan was to go into the ... store and kill [the girl], her co-workers and any customers," the complaint said.

When the girl and her mother didn't go to the store, Gaustad told police he went to their townhouse and parked several blocks away. When Nguyen and her daughter arrived about 3:30 p.m., Gaustad walked up to their car with a black handgun. He started yelling at the teenager, repeatedly asking her why she had broken up with him.

Nguyen got out of her car and started arguing with Gaustad, putting herself between him and her daughter. Gaustad fired a single shot, hitting Nguyen in the stomach. He fired four shots at the fleeing girl. She was not injured.

Police tracked Gaustad to a hotel room in Rochester, where he was arrested the next morning. One gun was found in his car, the other on a night stand in the room.

"It's hard to reconcile what you did with what you said here today," Lindman told him. "Most of us have had to deal with rejection. Few of us choose to react in such a cold and violent manner.

"You have essentially forfeited your life," the judge said. "I hope you can find some peace."