Charges: Former Hennepin County probation officer abused job to help suspect in New Year's Eve murder

A former Hennepin County probation officer charged as an accomplice in the 2019 New Year's Eve killing of Monique Baugh abused her position to help her former boyfriend who was involved in the murder plot, authorities allege in new court filings.

Elsa Segura, 28, used her job to look up people — including a suspect charged in Baugh's murder — for Lyndon A. Wiggins, authorities allege. Segura and Wiggins were romantically involved for years before Baugh's kidnapping and murder, according to court files.

Segura worked for the county from 2014 to 2019. She is also a survivor of the 2007 Interstate 35W bridge collapse.

The Hennepin County Attorney's Office charged Wiggins, 35, on Monday with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting kidnapping.

Authorities accuse Segura of using the alias "Lisa Powalski" and a newly purchased cellphone to lure Baugh, a 28-year-old Realtor, to a fake home showing in Maple Grove where at least two men forced her into a U-Haul truck before someone fatally shot her hours later. Baugh's boyfriend and the father of their two daughters, Jon Mitchell-Momoh, was shot and wounded in between her kidnapping and killing.

Five suspects are charged in the plot; all the cases are pending.

The new court documents revealed previously unknown details: Wiggins had a falling out last year with Mitchell-Momoh. After Baugh's killing, Segura allegedly used her cellphone to search media reports on the case and capture images of the coverage. She searched for the keywords "anxiety," "immunity" and "incinerator." Authorities noted that the cellphone Segura allegedly used to call Baugh has never been found.

Segura also allegedly looked up confession times at the Basilica of St. Mary's and checked the Hennepin County jail roster several times.

Segura was charged in January with one count of aiding and abetting kidnapping. Prosecutors on Friday added a count of aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

Segura's trial, scheduled to start Monday, is on standby. The charges against Wiggins, who is also known as Lyndon Swarn, allege that he had a falling out with Mitchell-Momoh in early 2019. They did not specify a reason or a possible motive, but noted that Mitchell-Momoh had identified Wiggins as a suspect.

In a January interview with the Star Tribune, Mitchell-Momoh said he suspected that music industry infighting could have been the motive.

Wiggins and Mitchell-Momoh rapped under the same music label.

The charges against Wiggins, who went by the name "Black Bag L.A." as a musician, allege that he had contact with Segura via text message and phone call several times leading up to, throughout and after the killing. They did not specify whether he physically carried out the kidnapping or shootings in the case.

Wiggins' criminal record includes convictions for aggravated first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and drug possession.

Wiggins is in custody on federal drug charges. Federal authorities accuse Wiggins, a suspected Black P. Stones gang member, of operating a drug trafficking ring that sold "heroin, fentanyl-augmented heroin, fentanyl-augmented pills, cocaine, crack-cocaine and marijuana" across Minneapolis, St. Cloud and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, according to court documents.

An affidavit from the FBI outlined how authorities staged synchronized raids last October of Wiggins' properties in the metro area and confiscated drugs, guns and cash. It also said that authorities listened to his jailhouse calls to associates, including Segura, during which he used "coded communications" to instruct them to destroy evidence.

According to the charges in the Baugh case: Baugh was kidnapped in a U-Haul truck from a Maple Grove home the afternoon of Dec. 31, 2019. A U-Haul truck arrived at Baugh's north Minneapolis home more than two hours later where a masked gunman used her key to enter the front door and shoot Mitchell-Momoh.

Mitchell-Momoh was shot in the groin, shoulder and below the heart. Baugh and Mitchell-Momoh's two daughters, then 1 and 3, were home.

About 6:37 p.m., police responded to an alley in the 1300 block of N. Russell Avenue for reports of gunfire. They found Baugh with her wrists bound with tape. She had been shot three times.

Cellphone records showed that alleged accomplices Cedric Berry and Berry Davis were near the Maple Grove home, the alley where Baugh was killed and other locations "pertinent to the investigation" between Dec. 29, 2019, and Jan. 1, 2020, court documents said.

Wiggins was a "close friend" of Davis, and Davis was a "close friend" of Berry.

Berry and Davis are each charged with two counts of aiding and abetting first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and aiding and abetting kidnapping. They are scheduled to go to trial Jan. 19.

Shante C. Davis is charged with aiding an offender. She is Davis' sister and Berry's wife.

Davis allegedly bought the cellphone used by Segura and was with Berry and Davis when the U-Haul truck was picked up, according to court documents. She has a hearing in the case Tuesday.

Staff writer Libor Jany contributed to this report.

Chao Xiong • 612-270-4708

Twitter: @ChaoStrib