Jury finds South St. Paul man guilty of murder in stabbing death

A Dakota County jury found a South St. Paul man guilty Wednesday of first- and second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a woman in his home last summer.

Thomas Michael Luby, 59, will be held without bail until his sentencing, scheduled for May 2 at the Dakota County courthouse in Hastings.

The jury deliberated for about eight hours before returning a guilty verdict on each murder count.

According to investigators, Luby told a 911 dispatcher on August 7 that there was a dead woman in his home and that she was dead "because I killed her."

Officers found Kelly Ann Anderson's blood-smeared body on the living room floor, a large kitchen knife in her right hand.

Luby told officers that he and Anderson, 45, of South St. Paul, had been drinking when she became upset with him and stabbed him in the neck. He then stabbed her, he said, in self-defense.

But the Hennepin County medical examiner's office found that Anderson had two deep lacerations consistent with defensive wounds, as well as deep cuts on her jawline and stab wounds to her chin, mouth and neck. She died of the wounds to her neck that severed her jugular vein and carotid artery.

Luby's only injuries were two small cut marks under his chin. He had been convicted of drunken driving at least four times and of disorderly conduct, and Anderson had been convicted of domestic assault.

"We are pleased to have brought Thomas Luby to justice for this brutal attack which resulted in death," Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said. "Our deepest sympathy is extended to family and friends of Kelly Anderson."