St. Paul man sentenced for fatally stabbing acquaintance while watching TV

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
·2 min read
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A St. Paul man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for stabbing to death a 30-year-old last summer in a Frogtown home where the pair had been watching TV and drinking beer together.

Alfredo Arturo Alvarez-Flores, 24, of St. Paul, admitted in January to killing Juan Jose Jimenez-Alarcon, also of St. Paul, on June 3 at a home in the 1000 block of Charles Avenue. An autopsy showed Jimenez-Alarcon had six stab wounds to his chest and left arm.

Alvarez-Flores had pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court to second-degree unintentional murder-not premeditated. A second-degree intentional murder charge was dismissed as part of the Jan. 30 plea agreement.

The length of his sentence, handed down Tuesday by Judge John Guthmann, is the top of the state’s guideline range on the charge for someone with no prior criminal history, prosecutors said.

According to the criminal complaint, officers called to the home around 10:30 p.m. found Jimenez-Alarcon sitting on the couch covered in blood. Medics soon pronounced him dead. No weapons were found on or near his body.

A man told officers his friend had been stabbed by Alvarez-Flores, who left on foot. He showed police Alvarez-Flores’ Facebook profile and his white shoes on the front lawn.

He told police he had picked up Alvarez-Flores and brought him to the house to hang out. He said he left and went to a convenience store, then received a call that Alvarez-Flores had stabbed Jimenez-Alarcon.

Another man told police he heard a scream from the living room, and that there had been no arguing or conversation prior to it. He said he left his bedroom and saw Jimenez-Alarcon slumped over on the couch and Alvarez-Flores standing at the front door. He asked Alvarez-Flores what was going on, and Alvarez-Flores said, “Well, that’s because he was threatening me,” the complaint states. Alvarez-Flores ran out of the house.

Jimenez-Alarcon told the man to call an ambulance.

A third man told police Alvarez-Flores and Jimenez-Alarcon had been sitting on the couch and drinking beer and watching TV. He said he was in the bathroom when he heard noises and went to the living room, where he saw Jimenez-Alarcon on the couch and Alvarez-Flores gone.

Officers found Alvarez-Flores passed out in bushes in the backyard of a nearby home. He was arrested and brought to police headquarters, where he asked an officer if he spoke Spanish. After the officer said that he did, Alvarez-Flores said, “I know I did wrong, and I truly confess that I poked the friend,” the complaint states.

Alvarez-Flores, who had dried blood on his right hand and his pants, declined to give investigators a statement.

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