A 23-year-old man charged last spring in the death of his pregnant sister and her unborn child has now being indicted by a Dakota County grand jury on charges of premeditated first-degree murder and intentional second-degree murder, the Dakota County Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
Bethany Ann Israel, 30, went to have dinner with her brother, Jack Joseph Ball, at his Lakeville residence on May 23. Several hours passed and family members were concerned they hadn’t heard from Israel.
Jack Joseph Ball (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)
Israel’s mother called 911 shortly after 11 p.m. and reported she thought her daughter had been killed inside Ball’s home on Encina Path near 170th Street and Pilot Knob Road. She reported she saw Ball and “he just tore out of the house” and there was “a substantial amount of blood” in the home, according to the criminal complaint.
Lakeville police found several tools and large knives, all covered in blood, and several dismembered body parts in the home.
Soon after, a resident in Rosemount reported seeing a man on their home security camera and he placed what appeared to be a body part on their front step. Law enforcement found Bell in the backyard of a neighboring home. He had a self-inflicted knife wound across his throat and was hospitalized before he was jailed in Dakota County.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Israel’s cause of death was complex homicidal violence and confirmed she was 17 to 18 weeks pregnant.
The baby would have been the first child for Israel and her husband, Josh, who were married in 2021, according to her obituary. They planned to name the boy Levy.
Before the grand jury indictment, the county attorney’s office filed a notice that they intended to seek a longer sentence if Bell was convicted. They cited factors including that due “to the horrific mutilation” of Israel, her family wasn’t able to view her body and have proper closure. They also said the public was impacted because Bell left a severed body part at the door of a Rosemount home and rang the doorbell twice to ensure the people there saw it and that he placed a body part in the front entryway of another home.
Bell’s attorney previously notified the prosecutor they intend “to assert a mental illness or cognitive impairment defense,” according to a November court document. At an October hearing, the county attorney’s office requested that its retained examiner be allowed to conduct a mental examination of Ball under the state’s rules of criminal procedure, which a judge agreed to.
In evaluations after he was charged, Bell was found competent to proceed with the court matters.
If Bell is convicted of first-degree premeditated murder, the mandatory sentence is life in prison without the possibility of parole. His next court appearance is scheduled for Friday.
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