Margot Gerald Lewis has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the stabbing murder of his former partner Liara Tsai, 35, of Minneapolis, in June 2024, and trying to cover the crime in a high-speed traffic crash several hours later.
Lewis, 33, a biological male who self-identifies as female, was convicted by a jury in September on two counts of second-degree murder in Tsai’s death, who was also a biological male who identified as female, according to reports and social media.
Charging documents in Hennepin County District Court, which refer to both parties as she/her, indicated Tsai was stabbed sometime overnight between June 21 to 22, 2024, inside his Minneapolis apartment. Authorities later found Tsai’s dead body wrapped in a sheet and futon inside a vehicle in the early morning hours of June 22, 2024, after Lewis crashed at high speed into a pillar on I-90 in Olmsted County, Minn. Tsai had a “gaping puncture wound” to the neck that was “inconsistent with life,” and responders determined that Tsai did not die as a result of the crash.
The crashed vehicle was registered to Tsai, and Tsai’s dog was found wandering around the vehicle at the crash scene. Responders found Lewis seated in a lawn chair in the highway median. Lewis refused to verbally respond to officers or medical providers.
Police later found a bloody crime scene inside Tsai’s Minneapolis apartment on the 700 block of East 16th Street. A single knife was missing from the butcher block, and Tsai’s bedding was saturated with blood. Surveillance video from outside Tsai’s apartment on June 22 showed Tsai’s vehicle departing the area about 4:37 a.m. Tsai’s dog was visible in the front passenger seat, and the driver was wearing clothing that matched Lewis’s at the time of the crash.
After Lewis was transported to the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office for questioning, he refused to cooperate, curled up on the floor, and became combative when officers said they were going to collect evidence from Lewis’s person. At one point, Lewis closed his eyes and began feeling the floor, walls, and furniture in the room with his eyes closed.
No motive for the murder was listed in the charging document, but a former spouse of Tsai’s told police that Tsai’s relationship with Lewis was “sordid and emotionally challenging.” The former spouse told police that Tsai had planned to have Lewis visit from June 21-29. Airport surveillance video showed Tsai’s vehicle picking up Lewis just after 11 p.m. on June 21.
At sentencing, Judge Paul Scoggin rebuked Lewis over the murder and subsequent desecration of Tsai’s body, saying the “callous handling” of Tsai’s body being “bound up, wrapped, transported, shoved in the back of a car, and rammed into a bridge pillar and guardrail at high speed was remarkably disrespectful.” Scoggin stated to Lewis that based on the evidence available, the crash was “simply an effort to cover your tracks.”
Lewis maintained at sentencing that he was “not guilty or responsible” for Tsai’s murder.
Lewis was credited with 517 days of time served in jail prior to sentencing, and under Minnesota’s two-thirds sentencing guidelines, will serve just under 26 years before becoming eligible for release in 2051.
Lewis is currently housed in Minnesota Correctional Facility-St. Cloud, which is a men’s prison. Information was not immediately available on whether Lewis will petition to be transferred to MCF-Shakopee, a women’s prison.
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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.
