St. Paul man who drove into crowd of Uptown protesters pleads guilty to murder, assault

An intoxicated St. Paul man who drove into a crowd of Uptown protesters in June 2021, killing a Minneapolis woman, pleaded guilty Monday to unintentional murder and assault charges just as his case was set to go to trial.

Nicholas Kraus, 36, was charged with intentional second-degree murder in connection with the crash that killed 31-year-old Deona Knajdek and injured three others in a crowd decrying the recent fatal shooting of Winston Boogie Smith Jr. by U.S. marshals.

As part of a plea deal, prosecutor Dan Allard said, the second-degree murder charge was amended to unintentional. Kraus also pleaded guilty to second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for injuring another protester, but a second assault count for injuring another protester was dropped. He will be sentenced Nov. 23.

Mandy Schubring of Minneapolis, Knajdek's close friend, was embraced by George Floyd's girlfriend Courteney Ross when the plea agreement was read in court Monday. Floyd was killed by police in May 2020, and the women had never met before but connected over their mutual support of Knajdek's mother, Deb Kenney.

Schubring said that although she was angry the murder charge was changed to unintentional, she hoped the sentencing will fit the crime and that people can focus more on Knajdek.

"It's Deona," she said. "That's who we're here for."

Ross said that Knajdek's family "has become dear to my heart. And I want people to know about Deona Marie and why she was fighting. She was fighting for Winston Smith. ... She was a mother of two. Now we've lost another person due to hate."

Intentional murder charges are rare for deaths involving vehicles. But Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in the days following the crash that Kraus was intoxicated when he committed an "extreme and violent intentional act" that killed a peaceful protester.

Kraus, who didn't have a valid driver's license, admitted to accelerating toward the crowd in his SUV on June 13, 2021, in hopes of vaulting over a vehicle parked as a barrier.

Court documents note that he was acting in a bizarre manner moments after the crash, telling an officer his name was Jesus Christ or the movie director Tim Burton and "that he has been a carpenter for 2,000 years." Officers noted he was visibly intoxicated.

Kraus has five drunken-driving convictions, most recently in 2016 in Anoka County. He also was convicted numerous times of driving without a valid license and for assault, failure to have auto insurance and giving police a false name. He lost his license after a drunken-driving conviction in 2013, according to state officials.

In an interview, Kenney said her family was relieved by the plea deal but still grieving over the loss of her daughter. She said they didn't want to comment further to avoid interfering with Kraus' sentencing. "We're leaving the rest up to the judicial system," she said.

Ross expressed relief over the plea deal in Kraus' case and the developments Monday in the trial of ex-police officers J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao. Kueng pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in connection with Floyd's killing, and co-defendant Thao agreed to let the judge render a verdict. Avoiding those trials helps to limit the trauma, Ross said.

"It doesn't seem to end, especially in Minneapolis," Ross said. "We have to go by these places every day. We live here. These are people that were killed right in our neighborhood. And they're the people that we love the most. It's incredibly hard on us and on this city."

Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.