Two men charged with first- and second-degree murder in the death of 90-year-old Earl Olander last year are expected to plead guilty Thursday in Carver County District Court.
The Carver County attorney's office said that Reinol Godines Vergara, 36, of Richfield, and Edson Celin-Dominguez Benitez, 31, of St. Paul, have reached plea agreements with the state and will be sentenced Thursday at the Chaska courthouse.
Vergara and Benitez were charged with second-degree murder after Olander's body was found in April 2015 bound with duct tape and severely beaten in his ransacked farmhouse in San Francisco Township.
In December, a Carver County grand jury indicted the two men on first-degree murder charges.
According to the criminal complaint, Vergara had painted Olander's house and decided he was "an easy target because he was an old man that lived alone and had money."
Key to the arrests was a tip from a citizen who found two savings bonds issued to Olander inside a large, European-language Bible while cleaning a St. Paul apartment once occupied by Benitez.
"The defendant … had recently painted Olander's house and shed [and] used Olander's bathroom in his home and had been provided water by Olander while painting his home," charges said.
Carver County Attorney Mark Metz said that Vergara and Benitez drove from the Twin Cities with the intention of robbing Olander.
