A 56-year-old St. Paul man has pleaded guilty to murdering his girlfriend at her downtown apartment in 2023 and will be given nearly 25 years in prison at his July sentencing.

Kelvin Maurice Perry pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder on Wednesday after reaching an agreement with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in the killing of 39-year-old Shaqita Thomas at the Press House apartment building on Nov. 15, 2023. An autopsy determined she’d been asphyxiated.

Kelvin Maurice Perry (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Two minutes after Perry told a childhood friend, “My girlfriend is gone — she is dead,” he walked in front of a light-rail train and was struck in St. Paul, the criminal complaint says. He was charged with Thomas’ murder while hospitalized with serious injuries.

Perry entered a Norgaard plea, which means a defendant says they cannot remember what happened because of intoxication or amnesia but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a jury to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.

The plea agreement calls for a little over 24½ years in prison. He remains jailed ahead of his July 23 sentencing.

Paramedics found Thomas dead in her bedroom after a friend asked the apartment building’s property manager to do a wellness check. She was lying face down beneath a blow-up mattress in the bedroom, and had head trauma and small cuts on her body.

Shaqita Thomas (Courtesy of GoFundMe)

A friend of Thomas told investigators she had been on a FaceTime video call with her about 11:20 a.m. Nov. 15 and she was crying while a man yelled at her in the background. Thomas told her friend the man was mad at her for spending the night at the emergency room with her estranged husband because of her son’s asthma, the complaint says.

Thomas’ husband, from whom she was separated, said he dropped her off in front of the apartment building on Cedar Street between Fourth and Fifth streets between 10 and 10:30 a.m. Thomas wanted him to leave so there wouldn’t be an altercation between him and her boyfriend.

An investigator also spoke with a woman Perry had dated. She reported he is a “very violent, jealous person,” the complaint states. She said she’d talked to a relative of Perry’s, who said Perry called people he knew and told them he “choked” Thomas out.

Related Articles

Noah Feldman: David Souter set an example for the Supreme Court

Trooper accused of producing child porn faces new charges in federal indictment

Minnesota Freedom Fund to stop bailing out jailed defendants

Former Tartan band director admits to sexually assaulting DeLaSalle student

Witnesses put suspected drunk driver’s speed at 90-100 mph before fatal St. Paul crash

Surveillance video showed Perry left Thomas’ apartment about 12:50 p.m. and that her key fob wasn’t used to unlock the door again until it was opened for paramedics two days later.

A woman who’s known Perry since they were kids said he called her at 11:13 a.m. Nov. 17 and that he “was crying and panicking” and told her, “Something is going on,” the complaint says. He asked her to tell his sister he loved her and the call ended.

At 11:15 a.m., Perry walked in front of a Green Line train at University and Western avenues in St. Paul.

“Perry has a significant arrest history out of Chicago where he is from and has family,” according to the complaint.

By ASHRAF KHALIL, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Pride 2025 welcome concert, with pop icon Shakira performing at Nationals Stadium, isn’t until May 31. But for host city Washington D.C., the festivities start with a string of localized Pride events beginning with Trans Pride on Saturday.

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ rallies, seminars, parties, after-parties and after-after-parties are planned for the next three weeks across the nation’s capital, including Black Pride and Latin Pride. It all culminates in a two-day closing festival on June 7 and 8 with a parade, rally and concerts on Pennsylvania Avenue by Cynthia Erivo and Doechii.

The biannual international event typically draws more than a million visitors from around the world and across the LGBTQ+ spectrum. But this year’s events will carry both a special resonance and a particular sense of community-wide anxiety due to the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Trump’s public antipathy for trans protections and drag shows has already prompted two international LGBTQ+ organizations, Egale Canada and the African Human Rights Coalition, to issue warnings against travelling to the U.S. at all. The primary concern is that trans or non-binary individuals will face trouble entering the country if passport control officers enforce the administration’s strict binary view of gender status.

“I think it’s a fair assumption that the international numbers won’t be as high due to the climate and the uncertainties,” said Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance. “At the same time we know that there’s an urgency and importance to showing up and making sure we remain visible and seen and protect our freedoms.”

There’s major anxiety over Trump’s approach to LGBTQ+ rights

Opposition to transgender rights was a key point for Trump’s presidential campaign last year and he’s been following through since returning to the White House in January, with orders to recognize people as being only male or female, keep transgender girls and women out of sports competitions for females, oust transgender military troops, restrict federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people under age 19 and threaten research funding for institutions that provide the care.

All the efforts are being challenged in court; judges have put some policies on hold but are currently letting the push to remove transgender service members move forward. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found support for some of his efforts.

In February, Trump launched a takeover at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, publicly promising to purge drag shows from the institution’s stages. Within days of that takeover, the Kennedy Center abruptly pulled out of plans to host the International Pride Orchestra as part of a week-long series of World Pride crossover events entitled Tapestry of Pride. In the wake of that cancellation, the Capital Pride Alliance cancelled the entire week and moved some of the Tapestry events to alternate venues.

Some potential international participants have already announced plans to skip this year’s events, either out of fear of harassment or as a boycott against Trump’s policies. But others have called for a mobilization to flood the capital, arguing that establishing a presence in potentially hostile spaces is the precise and proud history of the community.

“We’ve been here before. There is nothing new under the sun,” said D.C. Council Member Zachary Parker, who is gay. “While this is uncharted territory … a fight for humanity is not new to those in the LGBTQ+ community.”

Supporters say showing up would carry symbolic weight

A recent editorial in the The Blade by Argentinian activist Mariano Ruiz argued for “the symbolic weight of showing up anyway,” despite the legitimate concerns.

“If we set the precedent that global LGBTQI+ events cannot happen under right-wing or anti-LGBTQI+ governments, we will effectively disqualify a growing list of countries from hosting,” Ruiz wrote. “To those who say attending World Pride in D.C. normalizes Trump’s policies, I say: What greater statement than queer, trans, intersex, and nonbinary people from around the world gathering defiantly in his capital? What more powerful declaration than standing visible where he would rather we vanish?”

The last World Pride, in 2023, drew more than 1 million visitors to Sydney, Australia, according to estimates. It’s too early to tell whether the numbers this year will match those, but organizers admit they are expecting international attendance to be impacted.

Destination D.C., which tracks hotel booking numbers, estimated that bookings for this year during World Pride are about 10% behind the same period in 2024, but the organization notes in a statement that the numbers may be skewed by a “major citywide convention” last year that coincided with what would be the final week of World Pride this year.

Still, as the date approaches, organizers and advocates are predicting a memorable party. If international participation is measurably down this year, as many are predicting, the hope is that domestic participants will make a point of attending.

“The revolution is now,” said Parker, the D.C. council member. “There is no greater demonstration of resistance than being present and being you, and that is what World Pride is going to represent for millions of folks.”

Associated Press reporter Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

MILWAUKEE – A manager can appreciate two highly competitive athletes trying to make a play, even if the result of their efforts was painful – literally – for the Minnesota Twins.

When infielder Carlos Correa and outfielder Byron Buxton both made a play on a pop fly in Thursday’s game in Baltimore, it showed their competitiveness and some of the grit that has led the team to double digits in consecutive wins. It also landed Correa on the shelf.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli announced prior to Friday’s visit to the closed-roof home of the Brewers that Correa was headed to the seven-day concussion injured list as a result of his collision with Buxton.

“Ultimately, some of the tests that he went through today went fine, and some didn’t. And as soon as something doesn’t, that’s it,” Baldelli said of Correa, whose season batting average dropped to .236 before he left the game on Thursday. “We get him, basically, into the recovery phase as opposed to us testing him and trying to see if he can play. We put the playing aside and we just get him back to full strength.”

The bad news, which came in the midst of one of the longest winning streaks in Twins franchise history, came as a result of two players drifting into a kind of no man’s land between the infield and shallow outfield to make a play on a fly ball, which Buxton ultimately caught. Buxton, who also went into the concussion protocol after later leaving the game, did not go on the injured list, but he was not in Friday’s starting lineup.

“The play looked innocent, because I’m sure both of them would say, ‘Oh yeah, I could’ve made the play, no problem,’” Baldelli said. “It was just in that one small area on the field where both guys not only thought the other one was going to make the play but they were just going a little too far into the other guy’s space.”

The head injury comes after a 2024 season when Correa was limited to 86 games due to a nagging left foot ailment.

Big league debut for Fitzgerald

Utility infielder Ryan Fitzgerald had a tough first game of a doubleheader this week for the St. Paul Saints, then he found out he was headed to the Twins for his major league debut. Then his flight from Des Moines, Iowa to Milwaukee was cancelled, meaning he had to make the five-hour drive to the Brewers’ ballpark.

After a career spent playing minor league ball in the U.S. and Dominican Republic, the Chicagoland native who turns 31 next month would likely have walked the 350-plus miles for this opportunity. Primarily a shortstop who began his pro career with the Gary (Indiana) Railcats, Fitzgerald joked that he’d be willing to don catchers’ gear if it meant getting his first chance in the majors.

“Playing (independent) ball back in 2017, making 800 bucks a month, driving more than an hour to the ballpark, living at home, having this opportunity, I’m just super grateful,” he said. Fitzgerald added, with his debut happening so close to his hometown of Burr Ridge, Illinois, he had his parents, two brothers and assorted others headed to Milwaukee for the game.

Baldelli said the addition of Fitzgerald, who had hit .328 for the Saints with four home runs, gives the Twins some important options with Correa temporarily unavailable.

“We brought a guy that’s versatile and we brought a guy that can play in the middle of the infield, which means Willi Castro can go anywhere at that point,” the manager said.

Asked for a self-scouting report regarding what Twins fans can expect from him, Fitzgerald flashed a grin and flipped his impressive black, curly mullet.

“Good hair. That’s number one,” he said.

Related Articles

Twins extend winning streak to 11 by finishing another sweep of Orioles

Twins stars Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton collide, in concussion protocol

Twins sweep Baltimore, running winning streak to 10

Pete Rose, ‘Shoeless’ Joe suddenly eligible for Baseball Hall of Fame

Twins postponed in Baltimore, to play two on Wednesday

In the summer of 1980, the man now known as Pope Leo XIV saw the new movie “The Blues Brothers” with a Lutheran friend at Roseville 4, a now-demolished theater on Larpenteur Avenue.

They also ate at the Black Forest Inn in Minneapolis and spent time at Luther Seminary, where friend John Snider lived. The Rev. Snider is now the senior pastor at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in West St. Paul, and during that summer of 1980, he, Bob Prevost, as the pope was then known, and three others served together in a clinical pastoral education group at Abbott Northwestern hospital in Minneapolis.

John Snider, left, and Robert Prevost outside of the Augustinian House in Chicago in the summer 1980. Snider, now the senior pastor at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in West St. Paul, and Prevost — now better known as Pope Leo XIV — served together in a clinical pastoral education group at Abbott Northwestern hospital in Minneapolis that summer and have remained friends. (Courtesy of John Snider)

“I’d say, ‘Bob, let’s get together,’ but it was kind of bouncing around a bit,” Snider said. “He finally said, ‘If we’re going to be friends, we have to make a commitment.’ It was like, oh, yeah. So we did. We did a lot of things all summer, and I just think of that as one of those characteristics that’s true to him — people count, and he makes a commitment to be there with you.”

Then, as now, many seminary students are required to complete clinical pastoral education at medical centers or hospitals, almost like an internship where they gain skills on “the relational, conversational, emotional side of the job,” Snider said.

The men were in their early 20s; this was before they were ordained by their respective religious bodies: Snider at Luther Seminary in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Prevost within the Augustinian order of the Roman Catholic church. While Snider lived at the Seminary in St. Paul, Prevost lived on the hospital campus in Minneapolis.

“I’ll tell you the other thing: To have known someone, we were 22 and 23 or maybe 24, and to see this guy now being under a microscope, and lots of people either fawning on him or dogging him for this and that is like, what?!” Snider said. “But truthfully, I don’t worry about him. He’s not in it to be Pope; he’s in it to serve.”

About a week before the papal conclave was set to begin earlier this month to select a new pope, Snider reached out to his old friend — not knowing he would soon become pope, of course, but wishing him well as a voting member of the College of Cardinals.

“He responded, ‘Love to you and Polly and thanks for your friendship through the years. It’s all in God’s hands. Blessings, Bob,’” Snider said.

Snider is set to retire from St. Stephen’s on Sunday, May 18 — the same day as Leo XIV’s inaugural mass in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City.

The Roseville 4 theater, which had been on the corner of Larpenteur and Fernwood Street since the 1970s, closed in 2008 and was torn down to make room for an adjacent grocery store expansion.

Pastor John Snider of St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in West St. Paul, left, with his friend Robert Prevost, then a bishop and now better known as Pope Leo XIV, in Rome in 2010. The two have been friends since working together as seminary students at Abbott Northwestern hospital in Minneapolis in 1980. (Courtesy of John Snider)

Related Articles

Pope Leo XIV affirms family is based on union between a man and a woman, unborn has inherent dignity

Those who’ve worked with Pope Leo XIV are optimistic he’ll elevate women’s roles — with limits

Pope meets Sinner: No. 1 player gives tennis fan Pope Leo XIV racket on Italian Open off-day

Pope vows every effort to work for peace in regions where Christians persecuted, forced to flee

Pope Leo XIV is back on social media, with a message of peace

As far as Snider knows, Prevost has not been back to Minnesota since that summer, but Snider visited his friend in Rome in 2010 when the now-pope was serving as the global head of the Order of Saint Augustine.

No sitting popes have visited Minnesota; Prevost’s 1980 summer work makes him only the second pope in history known to have visited Minnesota before his papacy. Before becoming Pope Pius XII, then-Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli briefly stopped in St. Paul on a national tour in 1936.

“All my friends are like, ‘So when’s your next trip to Rome?’” Snider said, laughing. “But I’m not sure what a Pope’s vacation schedule is like! How many days off do you think the Pope gets to request?”