DULUTH — An Iron Range man who killed a Babbitt, Minn., couple who had taken him in as a roommate was sentenced to more than 46 years in prison Monday in St. Louis County Court in Virginia.
Iron Range man sentenced to 46 years in prison for death of Babbitt couple who took him in
Roger A. Beldo had been living with Clifford and Christine Johnson for a month before he bludgeoned them to death.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
August 5, 2024 at 9:38PM
Roger Allen Beldo, 54, pleaded guilty in May to killing Clifford Johnson and Christine Johnson, a couple married for 55 years and known for their kindness. Beldo had been living with the Johnson family for a month when he bludgeoned them both to death in October: Clifford, at 78, had mobility problems and was killed in the garage; Christine, 79, was killed in a bedroom.
Beldo then drove their red Nissan Rogue from Babbitt to Essentia Health in Duluth, where he made repeated calls to 911 before confessing to a Duluth police officer that he had done “really bad things.”
“I killed them, nothing I can say,” Beldo told officers, according to court documents.
A welfare check by the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department and the Babbitt Police Department confirmed the Johnsons were dead in their home.
Beldo was charged with two counts of intentional second-degree murder and his sentences — one 295 months, the other 261 — are to be served consecutively. Though Beldo appeared in the courtroom Monday, the sentencing was available for viewing via Zoom. He will return to the correctional facility in St. Cloud.
Asked if he had anything to say, Beldo spoke quickly.
“I loved Christine and Cliff myself,” he said. “I did not kill them.”
Cozette Karkinen, whose husband Eric Karkinen is Christine Johnson’s brother, told Judge Michelle M. Anderson she wanted Beldo to know how much he took from their family. Christine had been a keeper of shared memories with Eric — stories from before Cozette knew them.
“We’re never going to have closure,” Karkinen said. “It’s going to haunt us forever.”
In a letter to the court, Crystal Karkinen said the family has been filled with fear, nausea and heartbreak since the deaths of her aunt and uncle.
“Did they see it coming? Did they plead with him? Maybe not knowing is a blessing in disguise,” Karkinen wrote in a victim impact statement that was read by St. Louis county attorney Amber Pederson.
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