A Rochester man has admitted to killing his girlfriend, her toddler daughter and their unborn child in an plea agreement that calls for him to receive a 90-year prison sentence.
90-year sentence for Rochester man who killed pregnant girlfriend, her 2-year-old
The 30-year-old man pleaded guilty, may end up dying in prison.
July 16, 2021 at 10:06PM
Renard L. Carter, 30, pleaded guilty Thursday in Olmsted County District Court to two counts of second-degree murder and second-degree murder of an unborn child in connection with the deaths in September of 23-year-old Keona S. Foote, her fetus and 2-year-old Miyona Z. Miller.
The agreement calls for Carter to serve consecutive terms for each count totaling nearly 90 years. With credit for time in jail since his arrest, he will serve nearly 60 years in prison and the balance on supervised release. Sentencing has yet to be scheduled.
Defense attorney Lauri Traub said Friday that Carter received nothing in return for admitting to each count and accepting the possibility that he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
"He made the decision to plead," Traub said.
Police said Foote was in the first trimester of her pregnancy when she was killed in her apartment in the 400 block of NE. 31st Street. Carter had been living there for about a month.
Law enforcement in South Carolina, acting on a tip that Carter went south to kill an ex-girlfriend, found him a few days later in a room at the Aloft Columbia Harbison Hotel, said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott.
The sheriff said Carter opened the door with what turned out to be a BB gun in his hand, and three officers hit him with gunfire.
During his plea hearing, Carter said he and Foote were arguing because he wanted her to have an abortion, and she was mad about him seeing other women.
He said he made Foote squeeze her daughter's neck, then put his hands over hers because she was not applying enough pressure and killed the child.
He said he then forced Foote to wrap a phone charging cord around her own neck. He soon tightened it enough to kill her.
Carter has a criminal history in Minnesota dating to 2009 that includes convictions for illicit drugs, forgery, fleeing police, failure to pay child support, property damage, domestic assault and violating a domestic no-contact order.
He was released from prison five months before the killings after being incarcerated in connection with the domestic assault case, court records show.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
