Thompson confessed to killings, cousin says

The triple murder trial for a Cloquet man began Tuesday with opening statements by attorneys and dramatic testimony.

Sheldon Thompson, 35, is accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend, Jackie Defoe, their unborn child, and 20-month-old Kevin Lee Shabaiash Jr. in March 2020.

Thompson’s cousin Taylor Smith struggled to speak through tears and struggled to remember details during her testimony. But she clearly remembered what Thompson said to her on March 6, during a drive to Kwik Trip in Cloquet.

“He told me he had killed Jackie and her son,” she said, sobbing and swearing more than once as she forced the words out. “He wanted me to drive him out of Minnesota.”

Smith said Thompson had said something about Jackie stabbing him.

Did he say anything about stabbing her, anything about how he killed [Shabaiash],” Assistant Minnesota Attorney General Erin Eldridge asked for the prosecution.

“No, I didn’t ask for details,” Smith said.

Smith also stated that Thompson came into her friend’s home “freaking out” early on March 5.

Smith said Thompson said he wasn’t “going back. They’re gonna have to kill me first,’” she quoted him. “I asked what was wrong and he wouldn’t tell me then.”

Smith spent considerable time with Thompson on May 5-6, even riding with him in the trunk of a car to a local resort to buy “some shit.”

Defense attorney Jesse Dong asked what they purchased; it was heroin, Smith said. She admitted taking heroin that night, and more recently. He asked Smith to clarify a number of things she said, including which car Thompson was driving when, and whether she had asked a friend to tell Thompson she didn’t want to leave with him. Smith frequently said she didn’t remember details, it was too long ago. During Smith’s testimony, Eldridge had to remind her repeatedly of her previous testimony, and provided a transcript at one point.

Thompson faces two charges of murder in the first degree each — one for premeditated murder, the other for murder while committing domestic abuse with a past pattern of domestic abuse — for the deaths of Defoe and her son, plus one charge of murder in the first degree of an unborn child, premeditated. He also faces two charges of murder in the second degree for Defoe and Shabaiash and murder in the second degree of an unborn child-intent, not premeditated. If convicted, the first-degree murder charges come with an automatic life sentence.

Opening statements

Carlton County attorney Lauri Ketola began with Defoe’s birth in 1992, but quickly shifted to details of her “violent brutal death.” She had close to 50 stab wounds and a large gash across her throat. Many went deep enough to pierce internal organs. Although the fetus inside her was unharmed, it died because Defoe died.

More details followed of Shabaiash — “a vibrant little guy” — who was found under a pile of blankets in his room with a fractured skull, jaw and leg, “killed by this defendant,” Ketola said, referring to Thompson, who sat next to his attorneys, wearing a suit and tie.

Ketola spent significant time on the details of their relatively short relationship, which began in the fall of 2019. It was a relationship of power and control, she said. “Even the car she purchased, he took it and put the title in his name. Drove it like his own,” Ketola said of Defoe’s Buick.

Defense attorney Steve Bergeson began his statement with three words: “Argue, reconcile, repeat,” which he repeated twice.

“That was the relationship between Jackie Defoe and Sheldon Thompson,” he said. It was a relatively short relationship, he said. “They would yell, assault one another, get back together,” he added.

Bergeson talked about the state’s obligation to prove “beyond reasonable doubt” that Thompson committed the murders, and the jury’s duty to weigh the evidence. That the state would tell them he had a pattern of domestic violence, by taking testimony from a different person who was with Thompson from 2013 to 2016.

“You have to ask yourself, do these details from four to seven years before [establish] a pattern for 2020, a pattern beyond reasonable doubt?” he said. Bergeson also referred to the crime scene, asking if the mess left behind could be evidence of a premeditated crime.

He told jurors to evaluate the testimony. “What was their condition, were they under the influence?” He pointed to Thompson’s eventual capture and his condition, possibly suffering from hypothermia.

Video cameras show Defoe alive on March 4, at a Holiday Station in West Duluth, Ketola told the jury. More video, from Min No Aya Win clinic cameras, show the Buick pulling into Locke Lane, where Defoe lived with Shabaiash and sometimes Thompson, on March 5.

“That’s the last time that Buick was seen leaving or ever again going down that road,” Ketola told the jury.

More details of the investigation — begun after a call for a welfare check on March 7 — followed. “The BCA found part of a handprint in blood,” Ketola said. The blood was Jackie’s, she said. The print matches Sheldon Thompson’s, she told the jury.

More testimony

Ketola questioned Carlton County Sheriff’s deputy Nils Hansen, a Fond du Lac police officer at the time of Defoe’s murder.

Hansen shared his perspective of how the investigation unfolded on March 7, interviews with Smith and her mother, and Thompson’s eventual capture near Big Lake. Hansen was with Thompson when paramedics checked him for hypothermia. After telling Thompson to focus on getting medical attention, Hansen said he heard Thompson say that “he had messed up and he was going to go away for a long time.”

Dong questioned Hansen extensively about who and when he recorded interviews that day, pointing out that there is no recording of the alleged statements by Thompson. Hansen said his squad car was parked too far away to pick up the audio, unlike at least one earlier interview that day.

Eldridge questioned Defoe’s mother, Tammy Suomi, mostly about relationships. Suomi said Jackie had two older children in addition to “Baby Kevin.” In January, when Jackie fled to her house in pajamas, Suomi said she was afraid of Thompson, and wouldn’t go home unless her mother went with her.

The trial is expected to continue through next week.