Teen fatally stabbed amid underage drinking at birthday party in western Minnesota, prosecutor says

A teenager was charged Wednesday with fatally stabbing a fellow 17-year-old at a birthday party in a residential garage in western Minnesota where young people were drinking.

Seth Leo Paul, 17, was charged by juvenile petition in Traverse County District Court with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree manslaughter in connection with the death early Friday of Andre L. Kampeska in Browns Valley.

Kampeska was taken by ambulance from an apartment building in the 300 block of SW. 2nd Avenue to Coteau Des Prairies hospital in nearby Sisseton, S.D., where the Browns Valley resident was declared dead about 50 minutes later, the Sheriff’s Office said.

A preliminary autopsy by the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office determined that the teenager died from a stab wound to the chest.

Paul, also of Browns Valley, remains in custody as the County Attorney’s Office seeks to have his case moved to adult court.

According to the juvenile petition:

A sheriff’s deputy learned soon after the stabbing that Kampeska had contacted his mother and asked her to pick him up from a 15-year-old boy’s birthday party at a home in the 500 block of N. 3rd Street, where Paul lives.

“There were several people consuming alcoholic beverages in the detached garage,” the petition read.

The people who went to the party saw Kampeska and Paul arguing and then fighting until both fell. Paul’s brother pulled Kampeska off Paul. Kampeska was then driven back to his apartment along with the 15-year-old.

The 15-year-old saw “a lot of blood” on Kampeska’s shirt and asked how that had happened. Kampeska said he didn’t know.

Upon arriving at the apartment building, Kampeska got out of the vehicle and collapsed, but then regained his footing and made it inside. He sat down in a chair but soon fell to the floor, where emergency responders found him.

Back at the home, law enforcement ordered everyone to come out. Paul was the first to exit, and he had a knife clipped to a front pants pocket. A deputy told him to drop it, and he threw it a short distance before it was seized as evidence.

While a deputy escorted him to a squad car, Paul mentioned Kampeska by name and said, “I used it,” according to the petition. In a later interview with law enforcement, he said he acted in self-defense.