Life sentence issued in rape, kidnap case

After a jury found Dennis Michael St.John Jr. of Scanlon guilty of kidnapping, rape and domestic abuse in January, his expected sentence was handed down this week: Life in prison without the possibility of release.

Two of St. John’s convictions were used in guiding the sentence Monday in Carlton County Sixth District Court. He received just more than eight years on a felony kidnapping charge. His felony criminal sexual conduct conviction sparked state statute that guides sentencing depending on the existence of “heinous” elements to the crime. Carlton County attorney Lauri Ketola said in front of judge Rebekka Stumme that St. John’s crimes had three such elements: physical injury, torture and the use of a weapon. She said the “severity of harm” inflicted on the victim justified his conviction and eventual sentence.

St. John was asked twice if he had any comment or statements to make. Both times he said “no.” There were a handful of people in the court to witness the half-hour sentencing in person.

After the sentencing, St. John yelled out an obscenity toward Ketola. It was unclear exactly what he said because he, like everyone else in the courtroom, had a mask on.

Stumme admonished St. John. She had just moments earlier told him that she remained concerned that St. John was still maintaining his innocence despite the testimony at trial and convictions. “A woman … was tortured,” Stumme said. “The one thing you can’t get around,” she said, “is the extreme terror that I witnessed” during the victim’s testimony. Stumme said other evidence produced, including medical testimony, was “impactful” and the jury made the correct determination in January.

Stumme spoke directly to St. John when saying she couldn’t force him to feel remorse or even offer the smallest of apology. “You are going to be locked up for the rest of your life,” she said, and she hoped that in that time he would be able to “review” his life choices.

Stumme said she was bound by state guidelines to apply the life sentence without the possibility of release. “There is a lot you have to make amends for,” she told St. John.

The more serious charges with the “heinous” elements were added by grand jury indictment in October 2020. It was the third time Ketola had convened a grand jury to consider the charges in the case. She explained then that her office alone can’t charge people with offenses that could bring life sentences.

“When I took office, one of my priorities was vigorous prosecution of violent and criminal sexual conduct offenses; this case is both,” Ketola said at the time.

During the trial, public defense attorney John Schmid encouraged the jury to find St. John guilty of domestic assault, noting that his client had readily admitted to beating the victim. But Schmid argued the sex was consensual, using the fact that the two had been engaged in a prior relationship to bolster his argument, and the fact that the victim admitted to having consensual sex on Friday night and that she enjoyed “rough” sex.

Schmid said there were inconsistencies in the victim’s testimony to police when she reported the crime, and suggested she “exaggerated” what happened to get revenge for being beaten up and to help her qualify for housing as a battered woman.

“You heard [she] was pissed off. She told the officers to just shoot him,” Schmid said.

On Monday, Stumme said that the victim wasn’t “perfect” but the arguments made against her could not mask the obvious trauma she went through.

Schmid did not have any objection to the sentencing but did argue that the county’s plea to impose a $12,000 fine on St. John was over the top. Stumme eventually put the fine at $1,000. The money from fines in such cases go toward victim support groups, Ketola said.

The crimes

According to the criminal complaint, the victim ran into St. John at the Black Bear Casino Resort in July 2020 and they left about 11 p.m. to go to his home. She told police she had been in a previous relationship with him. Once inside his Scanlon home, the woman told police that St. John said “paybacks are a bitch” and proceeded to strike her and cut off her clothes with a knife. The woman told police that St. John had two knives and a large flashlight that he used like a bat to bash things around her and that he threatened to kill her. She said he sexually assaulted her six or seven times that night and into the early morning hours Saturday and then throughout the day and into Sunday morning. The woman escaped, she said, when St. John went to walk his dog on Sunday, driving off in her vehicle using keys she’d left on top of the tire. She said St. John told her he would find her and kill her and family members if she escaped.

During the trial, the woman admitted she had been inside his home with others for a time, and had engaged in consensual sex before he locked the door and made her a prisoner.

He stripped her of her clothing, and he stripped her of “her safety, her dignity, her humanity,” Ketola said at trial. “She knew she was trapped, she knew she had no way out.”

In her closing arguments, Ketola walked the jury through the elements of each first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge: one for great bodily harm, one armed with a dangerous weapon and one for use of force or coercion.

A prior sexual relationship doesn’t mean consent is given, Ketola said. She pointed out that the victim took the stand and admitted to some unflattering behaviors. The victim also told the jury that St. John raped her “like clockwork” during the 30 hours he had her locked in his Scanlon home. He wouldn’t let her sleep that entire time, using methamphetamine to keep her awake.

“Mr. St. John was in total control from the moment he locked that door. [The victim] knew it, [she] knew her life was in his hands. She couldn’t protect herself and those he threatened,” Ketola said, noting that St. John had photos of the victim’s children and license plate numbers taken outside her home, which she had not given him.

The victim was not able to be in court for the sentencing Monday, Ketola said. St. John had no comment when Stumme asked if he had anything to say about the case. He also said “no” when asked if he had any comment on the sentencing.