A Ramsey County judge on Friday sentenced Maurice Angelo McClinton Smith to 33 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of Tina M. McCombs, a St. Paul mother of six. The hearing closed out a case that began with her killing in the city’s North End in January 2022 and wound through competency hearings and a civil-commitment process before reaching its conclusion.
Sentence and plea
Smith pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder in November 2025 and appeared by Zoom from the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center for sentencing. Judge Joy Bartscher imposed the 33-year term on Feb. 13, 2026, as reported by the Pioneer Press. Before announcing the sentence, the judge read four written victim-impact statements submitted by McCombs’ family members and friends.
How the killing unfolded
Officers were called to an apartment at 180 W. Larpenteur Ave. about 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 9, 2022, where police found McCombs unresponsive. An autopsy later showed she had suffered two stab wounds to the chest, according to earlier reporting by KSTP.
Less than two hours after that call, officers located Smith on a rear stoop about three miles away, with dried blood on his clothing. Court documents cited by CBS Minnesota state that he told investigators he had gone to McCombs’ apartment “to get some tea and crumpets” and that he said he had gone “to kill her.”
Legal status and custody questions
About seven months after the killing, Smith was placed under a civil commitment as mentally ill and dangerous, then was later found competent to face charges in August 2023. Because of that commitment status, state agencies, including the Department of Human Services and the Department of Corrections, will decide whether he is held in prison or in a secure treatment facility after sentencing, the Pioneer Press reports. His attorney told the court that the plea agreement called for a sentence in the low to middle range of state guidelines.
Minnesota law lays out how people who are committed as mentally ill and dangerous are to be held and treated, including procedures for petitions to reduce custody or change placement. The statutes assign roles to the courts and to the commissioner of human services in deciding where a committed person will be confined and what level of treatment they will receive. That framework is detailed in Minnesota Statutes §253B.18…