Kevin Reek denied killing a St. Paul woman as he was sentenced Monday to life in prison for ransacking her house and fatally beating her.
Reek, whom jurors convicted earlier this month of killing Myong Ki Gossel, turned to the victim's family members and friends in court and blamed his conspirators — Richard Joles and Perrin Cooper Jr.
"I'm sorry for all the pain and suffering everyone is going through," Reek said. "I know you couldn't ask for a nicer person."
Reek, 48, said he wished he had known about Gossel's "trouble" with Joles and Cooper so he could have changed the outcome of her encounter with the men on Jan. 2, 2017. His attorney, John Sadowski, told the court that although Reek "respects" the court process, he maintained his innocence.
Ramsey County District Judge George Stephenson was hard on Reek, saying few cases had "disturbed me as much as this one" in his 17 years as a judge and 17 years as an attorney.
Gossel, a 79-year-old widow who lived alone in the 2300 block of Nokomis Avenue, overpaid neighbors for performing menial tasks. When they refused to accept, the judge said, Gossel threw the money on the ground so they'd have to collect it, or shoved it into their pockets.
"You had to beat it out of her," Stephenson said.
He urged Reek to spend every day reviewing graphic crime scene photos that weren't shown in court.
