Woman sought restraining order against man weeks before Christmas Eve stabbing

A woman arrested in the stabbing death of a man in south Minneapolis on Christmas Eve has been released from jail without charges, while court records show that she filed for an order for protection against him just weeks before the fatal encounter in hopes of escaping an abusive relationship.

The 33-year-old woman was arrested after police found Christopher Allen Jupiter Kelly, 46, stabbed to death in her home about 8 a.m. Authorities released her from jail Wednesday after she was held since Sunday on probable cause of murder. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged.

Kelly died of multiple stab wounds, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner.

In a statement to the Star Tribune, Minneapolis police said the department presented its case to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office for review. The office said in a statement that it's "deferring a charging decision pending further investigation," including a more detailed report from the medical examiner.

Attempts to reach the woman were unsuccessful. But a close friend and extensive court records depict a troubling and abusive relationship between her and Kelly.

"She was just tired of him, but not to the point of wanting to hurt him. She just wanted him to get away and leave her alone," said Adrianna Hudson of St. Paul, who has known the woman for the past decade.

Hudson said the woman texted her hours before the stabbing. The texts shared with the Star Tribune, which were sent about 4:15 a.m., said "911" and "call me." And just days earlier, she texted to Hudson: "If me and my girls die tonight Christopher Kelly did it."

Hudson said that she is sorry for Kelly's family, but it seemed like a kill-or-be-killed situation.

"He must have been trying to hurt her again," Hudson said in an emotional phone interview this week when she first learned of the stabbing, which explained why she hadn't heard back from her friend.

"He kept coming and bothering her, always at her door, banging on her door, calling and threatening her," she said.

The woman, a mother of three, shared a daughter with Kelly. In her petition for the order for protection, she said she was pregnant with Kelly's child and they had been together since 2020.

A process server made four attempts at serving Kelly the order a week before the homicide at a homeless shelter in downtown Minneapolis, according to court records. He was served the order Dec. 15 at a barber shop in St. Louis Park. An employee at the shop declined to comment when reached by phone.

Kelly's adult son declined to comment. Messages were left for other relatives, but none had responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.

The petition said that the most recent domestic abuse occurred Dec. 4 at the woman's home in the 5000 block of Minnehaha Avenue.

She tried ending the relationship and told Kelly that he couldn't live with her anymore because he was "mentally unstable," according to the petition. She said that Kelly got angry and began to strangle her.

"At times I was able to yell that I was pregnant and tell him to stop," she wrote. "I believed he was going to kill me or it was going to harm the baby in the womb. I was able to get my grandfather's urn and I hit him in the head with it and was able to get free and run downstairs. I called 911."

Police responded to the domestic assault, records show, and took another report of domestic abuse two days before the stabbing.

The woman said that Kelly had assaulted her "numerous times," according to the petition. She accused him of strangling, punching and kicking her as well as damaging her home and vehicle.

"I live in the cycle of abuse with him and have tried to leave the relationship several times and always end up getting back to him from fear, his control and manipulation and my empathy towards him," she wrote in the petition. "I understand now that Christopher will not stop hurting me and if I don't leave this relationship that he could kill me."

Hudson said that the woman told her "this paper ain't working" because the order did nothing to keep Kelly away from her.

Last year, Kelly was charged with domestic assault in Washington County for allegedly beating the mother of one of his children in Stillwater, records show. But the case was dismissed in February.

In 2020, Kelly faced second-degree assault in Hennepin County for allegedly stabbing a woman in a different south Minneapolis apartment, records state. The woman, who was not identified but said she shared a child with Kelly, called police and officers saw her hand was bleeding from puncture wounds.

Kelly's public defender filed a notice of intent to argue self-defense. The case was dismissed, and the woman's no-contact order against Kelly was vacated.

Another domestic assault case against Kelly from 2006 in Anoka County was also dismissed. A Hennepin County domestic assault case in 2014 was dismissed, as well as one the following year in Nicollet County.

His criminal record in Minnesota also includes felony gun and drug possession.

The woman arrested in Kelly's killing pleaded guilty in Hennepin County to aiding third-degree assault in 2017, and a misdemeanor domestic assault charge in 2010 was dismissed.

In 2016, she was charged with misdemeanor fifth-degree assault and disorderly conduct over threatening her manager while working at Noodles and Company in St. Louis Park. A judge convicted her of disorderly conduct and the assault charge was dismissed.

When she was pregnant with the daughter she had with Kelly in August of this year, Hennepin County Child Protection Services became involved because the baby was prenatally exposed to cocaine and showed signs of withdrawal, records state. She admitted to using because she was depressed about her grandfather's passing and a recent break-up with Kelly.

The child protection case was dismissed in November after she demonstrated sobriety and agreed to continue following a safety plan and programming.

Star Tribune staff writers Paul Walsh and Josie Albertson-Grove contributed to this report.