Jury finds St. Cloud man guilty for fatally shooting co-worker who rebuffed advances

ST. CLOUD – A Benton County jury found a 38-year-old St. Cloud man guilty on two felony counts for fatally shooting a woman outside her workplace in 2022 after she repeatedly rebuffed his advances.

Michael J. Carpenter was charged with one count of second-degree murder — and later indicted on one count of first-degree premeditated murder — in the homicide of 28-year-old Nicole M. Hammond of St. Cloud.

According to a criminal complaint, police responded to a report of a gunshot at a textile business on the northeast side of St. Cloud just before 7 a.m. on Oct. 24, 2022, and found Hammond lying in the parking lot near her car with a pool of blood around her head.

Two employees of the textile businesses where Hammond and Carpenter also worked told police they saw Carpenter in the parking lot before hearing gunfire. After Carpenter’s arrest, police found a 9-millimeter pistol and loaded magazine in his car; the style and brand of ammunition matched the shell casings at the scene, documents state.

Investigators found several text messages between Hammond and Carpenter from the previous night in which she said she “did not want to be touched” by Carpenter and told him not to make things uncomfortable at work, documents state. Employees told police Carpenter had made numerous advances toward Hammond and she had repeatedly rebuffed them.

The trial started July 22 and jurors delivered their verdict on Friday. Carpenter’s attorney did not return a request for comment.

Attorneys from the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office prosecuted the case at the request of the Benton County attorney. The state’s witness list included several law enforcement officers, as well as lab personnel from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and employees of the textile company.

“Nothing can bring Nicole Hammond back to her family and community. Nonetheless, I am pleased this brings some justice for her and I hope it brings some healing to her loved ones,” Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a news release. “It is my job to assist our county attorneys when they ask for help. Minnesotans in every corner of our state deserve equal justice and my office is here to help provide it.”

A few weeks after Hammond’s death, her friends and family organized a memorial walk around Lake George in St. Cloud with proceeds benefiting the Anna Marie’s Alliance domestic violence shelter.

Hammond’s obituary states she was a talented writer with a love for hiking, kayaking, photography and traveling, and that she was working to start her own jewelry business.

Carpenter is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 20.