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MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) — The man who evaded police for days after he allegedly killed a Minnesota financial adviser inside her suburban St. Paul office made his first court appearance Tuesday, hours after he was arrested in a northern Twin Cities suburb.
Lucifer Nguyen, 44, of New Hope, was arrested late Monday night. At a court appearance Tuesday in Hastings, his bail was set at $1.5 million without conditions, or $1 million with conditions.
Nguyen is charged with murder in connection with the death of Beverly Cory, 48. He also faces charges of aggravated robbery, burglary and kidnapping.
Authorities have said there is no known connection between Nguyen and Cory, who lived in Maplewood.
A message left with the public defender who appeared in court with Nguyen was not immediately returned.
Prosecutors said Nguyen went into a house in the suburb of Mendota Heights on Saturday, brandished a gun at a woman and demanded cash. After crashing the car he was driving, he then ran into a senior living center and forced an employee into a laundry room at gunpoint.
While officers were evacuating the center's residents, they got a report of what appeared to be blood seeping from underneath an office door in a nearby building, prosecutors said. Officers found Cory dead inside.
An autopsy showed she died of a single gunshot to the head.
Police then discovered that Cory's car was missing. It was found Sunday at the Washington County Fairgrounds, about 16 miles (26 kilometers) away.
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