A violent fake-police raid at a rural Isanti County ranch has ended with a murder conviction for the man prosecutors say pulled the trigger.
A St. Paul man was convicted Wednesday of second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree burglary in the December 2023 break-in that left a man dead at a Spencer Brook Township ranch. The verdict followed a three-week trial in Isanti County and effectively wraps up the remaining prosecutions tied to the ambush.
Jessie Mateo Rodrigues, 45, was found guilty after the three-week trial. Prosecutors say he shot and killed Jose De Jesus Diaz Fernandez during what had been planned as a staged “stash house” robbery, according to CBS Minnesota. Attorney General Keith Ellison said he was grateful to law enforcement and that the office will continue to pursue violent offenders, per that report.
How Prosecutors Say The Plot Unfolded
According to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, prosecutors say Northfield resident Fredy Saavedra Olivar recruited Rodrigues and two others to pose as police officers and rob a purported drug stash house, providing the men with guns, drugs, and the target address. The AG’s release says Olivar believed staging the robbery would let him escape a “very large debt” to a cartel and coordinated with the men by phone before the attack, per the state press release…