Charges say man killed his mother in her Uptown Minneapolis condo, then fled to Hawaii before his arrest in Kentucky

Murder charges against a man with a history of alleged violent outbursts against his mother were released Thursday that say he beat her in her Uptown condo more than two months ago and fled to Hawaii before his arrest in Kentucky.

Nicholas D. DeRousse, 30, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree intentional and unintentional murder in connection with the death of Stephanie DeRousse, 60, sometime in mid-March in her home in the 3100 block of W. Lake Street.

A warrant was issued for the son's arrest, and he was captured on May 18 by police 760 miles from Minneapolis in a park in Murray, Ky. He was in the Calloway County jail Thursday awaiting extradition on his first court appearance in Hennepin County, which has yet to be scheduled.

An autopsy by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office revealed that Stephanie DeRousse had broken ribs and bruising to her legs, neck, eyes and elsewhere on her head.

The charges said the cause of death was "blunt force trauma and strangulation with the possibility of suffocation due to [a] blanket over her head and her weakened condition from the beating."

According to the criminal complaint, which was obtained by the Star Tribune from the County Attorney's Office on Thursday:

Acting on a request for a welfare check, officers entered the condo, detected a foul smell and located Stephanie DeRousse dead on a bedroom floor. The officers looked beneath a blanket wrapped around her head and saw numerous injuries.

Clayton DeRousse, who was at the condo with police, told officers that his older brother Nicholas DeRousse no longer lived with his mother and had recently moved back to Murray. He said he last spoke with his mother on March 11, when she was vacationing in Spain, but he failed to reach her upon her return.

Condo building video surveillance showed Stephanie DeRousse returning home about 8:50 p.m. on March 12 and showed her again the next afternoon receiving a food delivery.

"This is the last time the victim is seen alive," the complaint read.

Video also revealed that Nicholas DeRousse was at the condo four times between March 13 and March 15 before he took a flight to Denver and then a connecting flight to Los Angeles. Two days later, he was on a plane to Hawaii. The complaint did not address his return to the U.S. mainland.

First in June 2017 and again in April 2018, Stephanie DeRousse petitioned the court for orders for protection against Nicholas DeRousse, alleging outbursts directed at her that at times turned violent.

Both petitions said Stephanie DeRousse called police at least twice about her son's behavior. Court records show no charges were filed in connection with the mother's allegations, although he was arrested in April 2018, charged and convicted of a gross misdemeanor for resisting officers who came to the condo to enforce one of the protection orders.

In the first filing, Stephanie DeRousse said that on June 13, 2017, her son was "acting paranoid, agitated and seeing things." She said he got angry over her feeding his son a grilled cheese sandwich. She said he called her vulgar names, injured her wrist while grabbing it and blocked her from leaving the condo they shared.

Two weeks earlier, the filing continued, she said her son "began violently waving [a] bat around. [He said] his father and brother are coming from St. Louis to take his son away."

She withdrew the request for protection a few days later, explaining in the second petition, "I believed him that he was going to get help and become a better person."

The second petition followed a string of incidents in 2018 that spanned nearly two weeks until April 10, when she alleged that her son soiled her bed and poured bleach on her clothes, and she suspected him of stealing $20,000 in jewelry.