Wife, friend charged with Minn. Guardsman's death
The Ramsey County Attorney's Office has charged the wife of a member of the Minnesota National Guard and a male friend with killing her husband, Brandon James Horst, on Aug. 5.
Prosecutors on Monday filed charges of murder in the second degree and conspiracy to commit a felony against Heather Leann Horst, 24, and Aaron William Allen, 25.
Heather Horst called police to the St. Paul house she shared with her husband shortly after 1 a.m. that day, according to the criminal complaint.
She told police she returned from a shopping trip to Walgreens to find him lying on his bed with blood coming from his head.
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Paramedics pronounced Brandon Horst, 25, dead of one gunshot wound to the head at 1:19 a.m. The night of the killing, police didn't find a gun near Brandon Horst's body but they discovered that a gun was missing from a cabinet in the dining room. A bullet casing next to Brandon Horst's body matched a casing in the case for the missing handgun, according to the complaint.
Heather Horst told police she and her husband had been arguing over his proposal that they have an open relationship, but had recently made up.
Brandon Horst's stepsister, identified in court documents only as AP, accompanied Heather Horst on a shopping trip to Walgreens shortly after midnight. Allen of South St. Paul, is AP's fiance.
In an interview days after the killing, AP told police that Heather Horst came to her home the day before the killing and said she wanted Brandon Horst dead, which AP thought was a joke, according to the criminal complaint.
AP said then that after the shopping trip to Walgreens on the morning of the killing, Heather Horst picked Allen up a block away from the Horst house and drove to Kaposia Park in South St. Paul. Allen then got out of the car with a black backpack and returned without it.
Police had earlier recovered a 9mm handgun and box of ammunition in a black backpack at the park.
AP said that Heather Horst told her she had left a gun for Allen on her dining room table. AP also told police that Allen told her he shot Brandon Horst in the head.
AP said she was afraid to come forward because she feared she would lose her fiance.
Allen and Heather Horst are being held in Ramsey County Jail. They both had their first appearance in court on Monday.
Minnesota National Guard spokesperson Maj. Ann Todd confirmed that Brandon Horst was a member of the 133rd Airlift Wing for the last six years. For the past two years, Horst had worked full-time for the wing.
"During his initial enlistment, he deployed in the service of his country to Southwest Asia for approximately six months," Todd wrote in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to our airman's family, friends and coworkers during this difficult time."