Rochester Murder Trial Ends With Guilty Verdict
Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - The members of an Olmsted County Jury deliberated for only a short time before returning a verdict in a Rochester murder trial.
The panel found 28-year-old Malcolm Woods guilty of first and second-degree murder for shooting and killing 38-year-old Brandon Arndt at the victim’s southeast Rochester residence on September 10th, 2018. He was also found guilty of a related weapons charge.
The judge presiding over the case immediately sentenced Woods to life in prison without parole for the first-degree murder conviction. He was also given a concurrent five-year prison sentence for the weapons charge.
Woods is the first of three defendants in the case to stand trial. 21-year-old Darian Klindworth Woods and 35-year-old Keilah Parsons are both charged with second-degree murder for their alleged involvement in Arndt’s death.
Woods acted as his own defense attorney and skipped the last two days of the trial. He did not call any witnesses and did not deliver a closing argument. In his opening statement, he admitted shooting Arndt but the told jury it was not premeditated or intentional.
He argued he only intended to confront Arndt over a medical emergency suffered by his grandmother the previous day. The criminal complaint says Rochester police suspected Woods and other family members mistakenly believed the shooting victim had something to do with the woman’s medical crisis.
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