A workplace love triangle was behind a 20-year-old man being fatally shot outside a Wright County business while on a lunch break with the gunman's wife, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.
Charge: Workplace love triangle was behind man's shooting death outside Howard Lake business
The suspect fled the scene and was arrested nearby in Waverly, the Sheriff's Office said.
March 22, 2023 at 10:13PM
Kevin Uriel Zelaya Asencio, 23, of Glencoe, Minn., was charged in District Court with second-degree intentional murder in connection with the shooting Monday of Adrian Montano Medina, of Lester Prairie, Minn., in the parking lot of the Dura Supreme cabinet manufacturing company in the 300 block of Dura Drive in Howard Lake.
Zelaya Asencio was arrested that afternoon about 4 miles to the east of the crime scene and remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail. He's scheduled for court Tuesday.
Court records do not list an attorney for him, but a court filing revealed that he claimed to law enforcement after his arrest that the gun went off accidentally.
The County Attorney's Office said it based its complaint on interviews with witnesses and Zelaya Asencio, along with the collection of physical evidence and surveillance video.
According to the complaint and other court documents:
Numerous calls to 911 reported the shooting, among them one from "a frantic female screaming." One caller gave law enforcement the license plate of a pickup truck that Zelaya Asencio drove from the parking lot.
Howard Lake Police Chief David Thompson arrived with an officer and located Medina in the driver's seat of a pickup truck with a fatal gunshot wound to his head.
Minutes later, a sheriff's deputy spotted Zelaya Asencio's pickup traveling on Hwy. 12 in Waverly, Minn. Zelaya Asencio was arrested, and the deputy located an AR-15 assault-style rifle in the pickup.
Zelaya Asencio was suspicious that his 21-year-old wife and Medina were romantically involved.
After arriving at work that morning, Zelaya Asencio's wife told him she wanted to end their marriage. Zelaya Asencio then left work and drove to his apartment, where he gathered the AR-15 and ammunition.
Zelaya Asencio drove back to work and parked a few spots away from Medina's vehicle.
Shortly after noon, Medina and Zelaya Asencio's wife left the Dura Supreme building together and got in Medina's vehicle to have lunch together.
Zelaya Asencio exited his pickup holding his loaded rifle, walked to Medina's vehicle, got in the back seat and ordered Medina to "either leave the vehicle or drive away," the complaint read.
Medina refused to comply. Zelaya Asencio made a threat and then shot Medina three times in the head.
Zelaya Asencio went back to his pickup and drove off but was soon arrested. In an interview with investigators at the Sheriff's Office, he said "there was a struggle for the AR-15 while in the vehicle, and it went off accidentally," read a search warrant affidavit filed seeking permission to look for evidence in his truck and his cellphone.
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