A Bloomington man pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing his wife and injuring two neighbors, one a 12-year-old girl, and is expected to be sentenced to nearly 50 years in prison.
In addition to the guilty pleas on second-degree murder of his wife, Angela, and attempted second-degree murder of a 12-year-old girl and second-degree assault of a woman, Jason Michael Mesich, 48, also pleaded guilty to first-degree assault for shooting at a Bloomington police officer as they were trying to apprehend him during an hours-long stand-off last August.
According to a statement by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, Mesich is expected to receive 367 months for the murder, 180 months for the attempted murder and 36 months for the assault. The sentences will be served consecutively for a total of 583 months. A separate sentence of 134 months for the assault on the police officer is expected to be served concurrently with the others.
During the plea hearing, Mesich admitted that on Aug. 30 he shot Angela Mesich 12 times while they were in the garage of their Bloomington house. According to the criminal complaint, the shooting began about 11 p.m.
During further questioning from a prosecutor, Mesich admitted he shot his wife twice in the head, twice in the neck, twice in the arm and six times in the upper chest. Mesich admitted using all of the bullets in the .40 caliber gun in killing his wife.
When asked about the shooting of the 12-year-old, Mesich’s lawyer asked him if it was true that he then went outside and got into an argument with a neighbor. Mesich hesitated before finally responding but said, “I don’t know if there was any exchange or it just happened.” Mesich then admitted that he thought the girl and her sister may have heard him shoot his wife, so he fired the shots that injured the two as they were in the front yard of their home.
Both of the victims are recovering from their injuries. The child is doing well and improving daily and her older sister is doing very well, according to the statement from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.
In reference to the recently filed criminal complaint charging Mesich with first-degree assault of an officer related to the incident, Mesich admitted that when officers responded to his home because of a call about shots fired, he was in his basement with a number of firearms. Mesich said he heard the officers call through an open door to come out with his hands up. Instead, he said he reached around the staircase and fired at an officer. One bullet struck a car outside.
Under Minnesota law, offenders are only required to serve two-thirds of their sentence incarcerated. As a result, Mesich will serve about 32 years in prison of the 48-year sentence. Mesich will be about 80 years old at the time of his anticipated release and will serve the remainder of his sentence on supervised release.
Mesich has been in custody since his arrest immediately following the incident and will receive credit for time spent in jail toward his sentence. Mesich is expected to be sentenced on March 15.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.