Habitually violent client in Minnesota sex offender facility beat staffer with fan motor, charges say

A repeatedly violent resident in the state's sex offender treatment facility in Moose Lake used a motor from a fan to repeatedly beat a security staffer, according to attempted murder charges filed Wednesday.

Nicolas L. Aron-Jones, 29, was charged in Carlton County District Court with second-degree attempted murder and various assault counts in connection with the unprovoked attack Monday at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) facility.

Aron-Jones was arrested at the scene and remains jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail ahead of a court appearance on May 15. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

The victim, a 53-year-old security counselor who was making his scheduled rounds at the time, suffered bleeding on the brain and a cut near his right eye during the ambush, the charges read. The staffer was taken by air ambulance to a hospital for treatment. His condition has yet to be disclosed. The MSOP did not release his identity.

Aron-Jones was committed as a client to the program in 2015 as a sexually dangerous person and was being housed in Omega 2, one of Moose Lake's more restrictive units.

Court records show that Aron-Jones has numerous convictions for violent outbursts at the Moose Lake facility:

In June 2020, he was handcuffed while he kneed and bit a staff member; in March 2019, he put a hairbrush in a sock and swung it at things, damaging windows and yelling death threats at staff during a 20-minute tirade; in June 2017, he punched and kicked a security counselor into unconsciousness; in May 2016, he spit at and attacked a security counselor, broke a table and threw a chair at a television.

According to the latest charges:

Aron-Jones swung a pillowcase holding the motor and hit the counselor in the back of the head. The man fell to the floor and was struck with the motor several more times to the head and elsewhere. Aron-Jones then kicked and stomped on his victim's head.

Other staff intervened, sprayed a chemical irritant at Aron-Jones, who retreated to his room and closed the door.

From behind the door, Aron-Jones yelled, among other things, "His man saved his life because I was going to kill" the victim.

While being moved elsewhere in the facility, Aron-Jones bragged to a staff member, "I busted his head open with the motor of my fan."

The court order for Aron-Jones' indefinite commitment into the sex offender program said he became sexually active before turning 10 years old, and was charged as a teenager for sexually abusing a 9-year-old boy and later molesting a female staffer at a Dakota County group home.

Agency spokesman Christopher Sprung said the program operates two small "behavioral units for clients who are exhibiting problem behaviors. The four-room units are staffed differently and are more intensely monitored."

These residents cannot leave their units except under certain circumstances, medical appointments, for instance, and must be escorted.

There are also high-security areas with single rooms for residents who have lost "behavioral control or [were] involved in serious incidents like assaults on staff or other clients."