A 38-year-old Minnesota man will most certainly spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering a female coworker in the parking lot of their workplace after she “repeatedly rebuffed” his sexual attempts.
According to court papers examined by Law&Crime, a jury in Stearns County, Minnesota, found Michael J. Carpenter guilty of first- and second-degree murder in the 2022 killing of Nicole Hammond.
According to a probable cause affidavit, at 6:59 a.m. on October 24, 2022, officers from the St. Cloud Police Department responded to a complaint of shots fired outside a textile factory in the 400 block of Lincoln Ave NE.
When first responders arrived at the scene, they claimed they immediately noticed a female victim who was an employee of the business “laying in the parking lot with a puddle of blood around her head.” Lifesaving measures were attempted but failed. The man, later identified as Hammond, was pronounced dead at the scene by medics.
Police discovered a spent shell casing and keys near Hammond’s body, as well as an open driver’s side door.
A witness told police that they were driving into the corporate parking lot when they noticed Carpenter get out of his car and head toward the south end of the lot. When the witnesses got out of their car, they reported hearing a gunshot from that direction and saw Carpenter run to his car and speed away.
Police conducted a forensic search of Hammond’s cellphone and discovered “numerous text messages” between her and Carpenter from the night before the shooting, “indicating [Hammond] did not want to be touched by the defendant [Carpenter], nor did she want to be manipulated by him,” according to the affidavit.
“She also informed him to not make things uncomfortable at work,” according to police reports. “Officers also discovered a text from [Hammond] to another person stating that the defendant was angry at her. Speaking with other coworkers, they stated that the defendant had made multiple moves toward [Hammond], but his advances had been consistently rejected over the prior month. Coworkers also said the defendant had a nasty attitude.
While officers were interviewing the victim’s coworkers, it was discovered that one of them was on the phone with Carpenter, who verified that he was aware Hammond had been shot and stated that he was “not doing okay.” Carpenter claimed he was at his sister’s house when police arrived and took him to prison.
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A search of his automobile turned up a 9-millimeter handgun and magazines that matched the brand and style of the shot casings discovered near Hammond’s body.
In an interview with police, Carpenter denied shooting Hammond. He claimed he was walking toward her car when he “heard a gunshot” and then “saw a person in a hat attending to [Hammond].” Carpenter claimed he “saw a lot of blood” and was “too traumatized, so he turned around and left” without providing assistance or phoning 911.
“The defendant also admitted to officers that he did not sleep well the night before, as, he kept waking up due to the text argument that he had with [Hammond],” according to the statement of charges. “The defendant stated that he was upset about that text conversation.”