Charges: Man is robbed of $23K, stabbed, hit with car and left on Meeker County road

Three people robbed a man of $23,000, then stabbed and intentionally hit him with a car before leaving him along a rural Meeker County road, according to charges filed Friday.

The violent encounter occurred on June 28 on a road in Litchfield Township near 600th Avenue and 230th Street, where the victim, a 50-year-old from Olivia, Minn., was taken with the intention of robbing him, the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office said. His identity has yet to be released.

Tre Anthony Ertl, 26, of Litchfield, Minn., was charged in District Court with first- and second-degree attempted homicide, first-degree robbery and first-degree assault. Aryianna Taree Pillatzki, 20, of Pennock, Minn., was charged with aiding and abetting first-degree robbery and second-degree assault. David Lawrence Pillatzki, 48, of Arco, was charged with aiding and abetting the following crimes: first- and second-degree homicide, first-degree robbery and first-degree assault.

All three were arrested this week in various locations in the state. The three appeared in court Monday and are due back on July 16. Ertl’s attorney declined to comment. Lawyers for the co-defendants were not immediately available to respond to the allegations.

According to the charges against all three:

A passerby called 911 and reported finding a man who was bloodied and said someone tried to kill him. Deputies arrived at 600th Avenue and found the victim, who said he had been stabbed and robbed. The deputies spotted a stab wound to his lower back and gave him emergency aid.

The man said he was attacked at the public access to nearby Minnesota Lake and left on the road about a half-mile away. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

In follow-up interviews, the man told a deputy he went to look at a camper near Lake Elizabeth and had $23,000 with him. He drove there with a woman and two men, later identified as the three defendants.

He said that after the man looked at the camper, the three gave him methamphetamine, and attacked and robbed him of the cash and his cellphone. He said he was punched, stabbed by Ertl and hit with the defendants’ car.

The Sheriff’s Office said Friday no money associated with the case has been recovered.

Law enforcement found the car elsewhere in the county near Cosmos. It was registered to Aryianna Pillatzki, who is dating Ertl and is David Pillatzki’s daughter. They were tracked down and arrested Tuesday and Wednesday.