Second suspect arrested in New Year's Eve kidnapping, killing of mother, Realtor

Authorities have not said what the second suspect's possible role was.

January 17, 2020 at 3:21PM
Monique Baugh
Monique Baugh (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A second suspect has been arrested in the New Year's Eve kidnapping and killing of Monique Baugh, a source has confirmed.

The suspect, a 28-year-old woman, was booked into the Hennepin County jail Tuesday on probable cause murder but has not been charged. The Star Tribune generally does not name suspects who have not been charged.

Cedric L. Berry, 41, was charged earlier this month in Hennepin County District Court with one count each of second-degree attempted murder with intent, second-degree murder with intent and kidnapping in the fatal shooting of Baugh and wounding of her boyfriend.

Berry has declared his innocence and is scheduled to appear in court next month.

Authorities have not said what the second suspect's possible role was.

According to the charges against Berry: A neighbor's surveillance camera captured footage of Baugh parking her car at a Maple Grove house about 3 p.m. on Dec. 31. Baugh, 28, was a Realtor and was showing the house. The camera also captured two suspects from a U-Haul rental truck later walking up to the house at separate times.

The home's garage door opened and one suspect walked out, positioned the U-Haul's cargo area to face the garage and re-entered the home. A second suspect walked out of the garage holding onto a third person, presumably Baugh. The pair entered the cargo area of the U-Haul.

The first suspect got into the driver's seat and drove away about 3:18 p.m., according to the charges, which did not specify the suspects' genders.

The charges said a masked Berry entered the north Minneapolis home Baugh shared with her boyfriend, Jon Mitchell-Momoh, and shot him several times about 5:40 p.m. The couple's 1- and 3-year-old daughters were home at the time. Mitchell-Momoh survived.

Berry then shot Baugh in the torso and face at close range in an alley a few miles away about 6:38 p.m.

The charges did not specify a motive, but search warrant affidavits tied her killing to a suspected drug rivalry between Mitchell-Momoh and Berry, while a criminal complaint said the bloodshed occurred after Mitchell-Momoh, a rising rapper, had just signed a contract and was "flaunting his cash on social media."

Mitchell-Momoh said in an interview that he did not know Berry.

Cedric L. Berry (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
about the writers

about the writers

Chao Xiong

Reporter

Chao Xiong was the Hennepin County Courts reporter for the Star Tribune. He previously covered Ramsey County courts, St. Paul police, the state of Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis.

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Libor Jany

Reporter

Libor Jany is the Minneapolis crime reporter for the Star Tribune. He joined the newspaper in 2013, after stints in newsrooms in Connecticut, New Jersey, California and Mississippi. He spent his first year working out of the paper's Washington County bureau, focusing on transportation and education issues, before moving to the Dakota County team.

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