Her longtime boyfriend is dead, and her medical bills are mounting. Soon, Jennifer Cleven fears, she may also be homeless.
Nevertheless, Cleven showed up Friday in Ramsey County District Court to see the first court appearance for the woman charged with aiding and abetting in the shooting attack Monday night that killed her boyfriend, Todd G. Stevens.
"I'm here today because I want some justice," she said.
Cleven and Stevens were standing outside the New Brighton home they shared when their neighbor Neal C. Zumberge, 57, allegedly sprayed them with buckshot, killing Stevens and wounding Cleven twice in the abdomen.
Zumberge was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder for allegedly emptying a semiautomatic shotgun on his neighbors because they fed deer and because Cleven had called the cops on his son. His wife, Paula A. Zumberge, 50, was charged a day later with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. She appeared in court on Friday.
Questions for the future
Cleven said Friday that since the house she shared with Stevens is in his name, she won't be able to take ownership and fears it will be repossessed by the bank.
"Now I don't know where I'm going to live, but I wouldn't want to live in that house anyway," she said. "How could I?"
Stevens, 46, was shot multiple times in the upper torso and died at the scene. Cleven, 48, was treated and released from the hospital Tuesday. She said that it wasn't until she returned home a few days after the shooting that she realized that Stevens' boxer dog, Lacie, had also been shot through the foot by buckshot that went through the house.
