Hopkins man pleads guilty to murdering his girlfriend days after he was released from jail for abusing her

A Hopkins man admitted Monday that he murdered his girlfriend just days after being released from jail for previously abusing her.

Matthew S. Brenneman, 40, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Danicka M. Bergeson in Hennepin County District Court, a little over a year after police found Brenneman covered in bleach in Bergeson’s bathroom and her dead body wrapped tightly in blankets on her bed.

Family and supporters of Bergeson, dressed in black with purple accents to honor victims of domestic violence, sat in the courtroom crying and at one point uttered obscenities as Brenneman detailed his crime.

Judge Daniel C. Moreno asked Brenneman if he was of sound mind, if he knew his rights, and if he was pleading guilty because he was guilty.

“Yes I am,” Brenneman said.

The plea carries a sentence of just under 24 years. That is an upward departure from sentencing guidelines, which Hennepin County prosecutor Erin Lutz said was justified due to two aggravating Blakely factors (when prosecutors seek a sentence that exceeds state law) attached to the murder charge.

Those factors were that Brenneman murdered Bergeson in her zone of privacy, because it was in her bedroom, and that he treated her with particular cruelty because he left her body to decompose.

The plea also dismissed all other charges the state had brought in this case, including a first-degree murder charge that carried the potential for life in prison.

In Minnesota, defendants typically serve two-thirds of their sentence, which could see Brenneman released in closer to 15 years. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 23.

Brenneman had a history of abusing Bergeson, a 33-year-old former Army medic, and was under an order to not have any contact when he went to her apartment and killed her sometime between June 29 and July 8 last year. Brenneman had been released from jail a few days earlier, after pleading guilty to domestic assault charges.

Those assault charges also will be addressed at sentencing.

Brenneman’s lawyer, Sarah Koziol, had him explain the circumstances of his crime as he entered his plea.

Brenneman affirmed that he was under a no-contact order when he went to the Ramsgate Apartments in Hopkins where Bergeson lived. He said they spent time together and watched fireworks on the Fourth of July — a claim which drew invective from Bergeson’s family and led Moreno to tell them they needed to remain quiet or leave the court.

Brenneman affirmed that at some point he and Bergeson started arguing, that he pinned her down to her bed and caused bruising on her chest and arm. He admitted that he knew it was “day two or three of not drinking” for Bergeson and that she could become physically weak when abstaining from alcohol.

He admitted that at some point she stopped resisting. That he did not administer aid. That he left her in her bed. That he did not check on her for days. That he did not call for help. And once he realized she was dead, he wrapped her body in a plastic bag.

After the hearing, David Bergeson, Danicka’s father, said that story gave them no relief.

“To hear him tell his story and us not to tell our story is difficult,” he said. “He only has to tell enough just to meet the criteria of the charges. It’s like he can make up what he wants as he goes along, and that’s what we have to listen to.”

Charging documents said that when cops were called to Danicka Bergeson’s apartment on July 8, 2023, they found Brenneman in the bathroom, seeming to have just drank bleach. Bergeson was dead in her bed. Officers wrote that Brenneman had bruising and swelling to his cheek, scratches and scrapes to his face, arms and legs, “and distinctive scratches to his back consistent with fingernail scrapes.” There was an apparent suicide note written on the kitchen table, which read, “Things happened abruptly, I didn’t know what to do and tried to go on a couple days. I can’t try to live after this. The end, Matthew.” Several other drafts of the note were in the garbage.

Just days earlier, Brenneman had been released from jail after pleading guilty to two domestic assault charges stemming from incidents in April and May of 2023. In April, Brenneman punched Bergeson, leaving her with a black eye. In May, he strangled her, said he was going to kill her and left her with what the charges referred to as “substantial bruising to her body and marks on her neck.”

“This is a tragic set of circumstances involving two imperfect people,” Brenneman’s defense attorney Emmett Donnelly said in a statement. “Mr. Brenneman most certainly did not intend for Ms. Bergeson to die.”

In December, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office secured an indictment against Brenneman, including one count of first-degree murder while committing domestic abuse with a past pattern of domestic abuse, which carries the potential for a life sentence with the possibility of parole. The indictment also included two counts of second-degree murder.

Court records also show that Brenneman was the subject of an order for protection in 2021 from a different partner, after he was accused of pinning her to a bed during a drunken rage.

Bergeson’s family said that, given all of the evidence and Brenneman’s history, the plea agreement left them feeling like justice evaded them — even as they praised the prosecution for their handling of the case.

“The system is not for victims but criminals,” Bergeson’s mother, Leticia Guadarrama said. “Criminals are the ones who have rights. Not victims.”

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.

Star Tribune staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.