The Minnesota Court of Appeals has upheld the murder conviction of Matthew Ecker in the shooting death of his girlfriend at her St. Paul apartment.
In a unanimous decision filed Monday, a three-judge panel rejected Ecker’s argument that his conviction should be reversed because the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he shot 32-year-old Alexandra Pennig in December 2022. Ecker claimed the circumstantial evidence supported a reasonable hypothesis that Pennig died by suicide.
Alexandra Lee Pennig (Courtesy of Pennig’s family)
A Ramsey County jury in February 2024 convicted the 46-year-old emergency room practitioner of second-degree intentional murder, not premeditated. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The state alleged during trial that Ecker shot Pennig in the head during a struggle at the door to the bathroom in Pennig’s apartment. Ecker maintained that Pennig took her own life after locking herself in the bathroom.
Attorney Robert Richman, who represented Ecker in his appeal, declined to comment on Monday’s decision. A petition to the state Supreme Court is being discussed, he said, adding that “it’s too early to say.”
Ecker, who lived in Fergus Falls with his wife and four children, had been in a romantic relationship with Pennig for about two years. It was revealed during his trial that Pennig, a former nurse, struggled with addiction and mental-health issues and had previously attempted suicide by taking too many medications. Ecker had prescribed Pennig multiple medications and had given her approximately $28,000 over the course of their relationship.
Undetermined manner of death
Ecker called 911 at 2:50 a.m. Dec. 16, 2022, from the Lofts at Farmers Market apartment at 260 E. Fifth St. and reported that Pennig had shot herself with his handgun. He told dispatch that he called four minutes after she pulled the trigger. He said that he had a permit to carry a firearm.
Officers found Pennig lying on her back in the bathroom with a gunshot wound to the left side of her head. “Ecker said it was weird since (Pennig) is right-handed,” the criminal complaint said.
Matthew Phillip Ecker (Courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
Ecker told police they had been drinking at downtown bars. After Pennig shot herself, he said, he ran to the bathroom and broke the door down with his shoulder to get inside. Officers found Pennig’s feet straddling the door and a piece of the door’s lock underneath her, which, the prosecution argued, showed the door was open and not closed when she fell to the ground.
Ecker’s trial attorney, Bruce Rivers, told jurors the medical examiner and a forensic pathologist hired by the defense both agreed that Pennig’s manner of death “is undetermined.” Ecker, who waived his right to testify, had no motive to kill Pennig, Rivers said, adding that he cared for her and even loved her.
Prosecutors pointed out to jurors they did not have to prove motive to secure a guilty conviction. They offered one up anyway: Ecker had been financially supporting Pennig and she planned to live with her new boyfriend, who punched Ecker in the face at a bar about an hour before the killing.
‘Inference of guilt’
The appellate judges considered “whether a reasonable inference of guilt can be drawn from the circumstances proved, viewed as a whole.”
The position of Pennig’s legs in relation to the bathroom door and the door’s metal latch piece underneath Pennig’s body “are consistent with the state’s theory that Ecker slammed into the door before (Pennig) was shot and that the door was open when she died,” the decision read.
The gun, which was Ecker’s, was located in Pennig’s left hand, but she was right-handed, the decision noted.
Ecker said he washed his hands after attempting to stop the bleeding, but there was no blood on the sink handles and the sink was dry. Ecker denied cleaning the gun, yet despite his admission that he transferred the gun from the bathroom to the suitcase and back to the bathroom, his DNA was not on his gun.
“Perhaps most significantly, Ecker admitted that he moved the gun, first to his suitcase and then back to the bathroom, where he positioned it underneath (Pennig’s) left hand on her chest,” the decision read.
Although Dr. Kelly Mills, chief medical examiner for Ramsey County, could not determine a manner of death, she testified that she had never seen a suicide where the decedent’s romantic partner repositioned the gun in the way Ecker said he did, the decision said. It also noted that Mills believed the evidence was inconsistent with suicide.
Ecker’s primary contention in his appeal was that, even if the circumstances support a reasonable inference of guilt, they supported the equally reasonable inference that Pennig died by suicide. To support his argument, Ecker relied heavily on the evidence of Pennig’s prior suicide attempt and a Dec. 13 text message she sent to Ecker in which she wrote she did not feel hopeful about life.
“But in determining the reasonableness of inferences,” the decision read, “we must consider the circumstances proved not in isolation, but as a whole.”
Planning her future
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The ruling noted that Pennig was actively planning for the future: She was interviewing for jobs, arranging for ongoing payment of rent and refills of prescription medication and making plans to attend a wedding the following summer. In addition, Pennig did not like, or have familiarity with, firearms, and multiple witnesses testified about the unlikelihood that she would use a firearm to end her life.
In his appeal, Ecker also pointed to physical and forensic evidence as being inconsistent with guilt. He argued the nature of the gunshot wound, lack of obvious defensive wounds, absence of blood or gunshot residue on his hands or clothing and the presence of Pennig’s DNA on his holster support the inference that she died by suicide.
“Again, though, Ecker’s argument relies on isolated circumstances,” the decision read, adding additional circumstances proved include Pennig’s clean hands, a clean gun, dry sink, coagulating blood and officer testimony that the crime scene was inconsistent with suicide.
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