An Arden Hills bar owner was sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation Friday for stashing a gun his friend used to fatally shoot a man during a fight inside the business, then lying to investigators by claiming the shooting was not captured on video surveillance.

James Henrey Welsch, 49, of Vadnais Heights, pleaded guilty in June to felony aiding an offender after the fact in connection with the March 2022 shooting at Welsch’s Big Ten Tavern. As part of Welsch’s plea agreement, attorneys agreed that the felony offense should be ranked at a severity level of seven, resulting in a stayed prison sentence and probation.

James Henrey Welsch, left, and Eric Eugene Baker (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Eric Baker, 47, of Minneapolis, who shot 36-year-old Dustin Kukowski, of Mounds View, was given an 11-year prison term in March after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter.

At sentencing, Ramsey County District Judge Joy Bartscher granted a request from Welsch’s attorney, Thomas Kelly, for a stay of imposition, which means the felony conviction will be deemed a misdemeanor as long as Welsch successfully follows terms of his supervised probation.

Kelly wrote in a Tuesday court filing that Welsch hid Baker’s gun “while in an extremely intoxicated condition” and that Welsch is a “good parent, a good partner to his companion … a good employer” and “is the type of person deserving” of a stay of imposition.

“Importantly, with a Stay of Imposition, the bar license might be preserved,” Kelly added.

He apologized for lying

Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to the bar at 4703 U.S. Highway 10 around 12:30 a.m. March 25, 2022, and saw a patron holding napkins to Kukowski’s chest. He was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where doctors performed several surgeries to try to save his life. The father of two died April 5.

A bar patron told deputies he saw Baker and Kukowski fighting before the shooting. Deputies recovered a 9mm casing from the bar and later arrested Baker at a Roseville hotel. He declined to speak to authorities.

Welsch told deputies he was downstairs at the bar when the shooting happened. He was evasive when asked about Baker and denied having a phone number for him, according to the criminal complaint.

Dustin Kukowski (Courtesy of Debbie Kukowski)

Deputies found images on Facebook that showed Welsch and Baker together at the Minnesota Wild game earlier that night. Welsch then admitted he had a phone number for Baker and gave it to deputies.

Welsch agreed to let deputies look at the bar’s surveillance system. The equipment did not appear to be powered up, and Welsch said he was in the middle of construction projects and that he had not used his camera system for a while.

Later that day, an investigator took a call from someone who wanted to remain anonymous and said that Welsch and Baker are “best friends” and that the bar’s surveillance video system worked, the complaint says.

A bartender later told investigators she grabbed the gun off the bar top after the shooting so that no one else would be hurt. She said she brought it to the kitchen and showed Welsch, who took the gun downstairs.

Four days after the shooting, Welsch reported finding the Glock 9mm under trash bins at the bar. The handgun did not have a magazine when an investigator recovered it.

Welsch later that day said he didn’t remember much from the night of the shooting because he was drunk.

Investigators told Welsch that they knew he had taken possession of the gun that night. Welsch then admitted he grabbed the gun from a kitchen counter, unloaded it and hid it in the basement rafters. He said he later put the gun outside to get some distance from it, and apologized for not telling deputies where it was on the night of the shooting.

Investigators opened the bar’s digital video recorder and discovered the hard drive had been disconnected from its contact site. Investigators cloned Welsch’s network video recorder and found video that stopped about a half-hour after the shooting.

Probation includes AA meetings

Judge Bartscher ordered that Welsch serve at least one month of his six-month jail sentence in custody. He can serve the rest of the time on programs the workhouse deems him eligible for, such as electronic-home monitoring.

The judge approved an Oct. 1 turn-in date for Welsch to begin the sentence, and he will be given credit for the two days he served in custody after his arrest and before he was released after posting a $10,000 bond.

Bartscher ordered that Welsch continue to go to at least one Alcoholics Anonymous meeting weekly while on probation.

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KANSAS CITY, MO. — Rocco Baldelli might have left Pablo López in to finish off the final out of seventh inning on Thursday if the rules replay had taken, say, 45 seconds instead of more than 10 minutes.

But a lengthy delay eventually forced him to turn the ball over to reliever Griffin Jax, who required just one pitch to get out of the inning. When the eighth inning rolled around, Jax trotted back to the mound.

It was just the second time this season — the other coming on May 8 — that the Twins have asked Jax, whom López described as “the best reliever in baseball,” to throw more than an inning. And it might be something the Twins do more often with Jax, who entered Friday with a 1.89 ERA, as the games get increasingly important in the final month of the regular season.

“I would bet in September, it’s going to happen,” Baldelli said days earlier. “You always want to keep pitching your guys and you want to keep pitching your best pitchers even more, especially when you’ve lost some games recently. … I can see him going back out there in a lot of situations in September.”

After retiring his first batter on just one pitch, Jax said he figured he’d be called upon for the eighth inning, as well, even though it hasn’t been something he’s been asked to do recently.

While getting two “ups” might be a little different than what he’s been accustomed to, Jax has experience doing it in the past. He did it quickly on Thursday, needing just 13 pitches to collect his four outs.

“I just try to stay mentally locked in,” Jax said. “Thankfully, it was a pretty quick inning on offense. You never want to say we didn’t make any noise in the top of the eighth, but it kind of helped me out a little bit to stay locked in a little bit longer. It was a normal lane that I was going to go face anyway. I just reviewed those guys, went back out there and tried to keep pounding the zone.”

Varland shifts to bullpen

The assumption for some time now is that the Twins would eventually shift Louie Varland to a bullpen role. A couple injuries to starters in their rotation potentially delayed that slightly.

The Twins have been prepping him for it recent days. In his last outing at Triple-A, Varland came out of the bullpen and threw, essentially, a whole start. He came on in relief on Wednesday against Tampa Bay in his return to the majors and was hit hard, giving up eight runs in 2 1/3 innings pitched.

Now, the Twins have confirmed that their plans are to use Varland in relief down the stretch, a role he excelled in last year.

“It’s late in the year. Things can change. One injury to anyone on our team changes everybody’s role so we never tie our hands in that sense, but right now, we’re going to get him in some shorter stints in the bullpen and see if that can help us in a few different ways,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I think he could be a really nice force in our bullpen.”

The Twins’ bullpen has been hit by injuries — Brock Stewart, Justin Topa and Kody Funderburk are all out — and has been reshaped recently by roster moves. Adding Varland, Baldelli said, will “support some of our other late-inning guys in some really good ways.”

Briefly

Baldelli said Byron Buxton was still being re-evaluated after feeling hip discomfort during a rehab game on Wednesday night in St. Paul and did not have a further update on his status. … Bailey Ober will start on Saturday for the Twins against Kansas City. That game will be aired on FOX.

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Raks Pham arrived to work Friday at the St. Paul auto repair his father started nearly four decades ago to find it burglarized.

After he posted about the break-in at Tuan Auto Repair in a Hamline-Midway neighborhood Facebook post, Pham heard from residents expressing their support for the well-loved family business.

Raks Pham, owner of Tuan Auto Repair, outside the St. Paul business started by his father in 1986.(Courtesy of Raks Pham)

Pham wrote that his shop at University Avenue and Pascal Street has been hit by graffiti in the past and he’s cleaned it up when that’s happened.

But “in all our years here these past couple to few years are the worst I have seen it,” he wrote. “And I don’t know what I can do to change it but to ask the entire neighborhood to help somehow. … Drive up and down (University Avenue) and alleyways and look at the trash and graffiti.”

City Council President Mitra Jalali, who represents the area, wrote in a reply that she was sad and sorry about the burglary.

She will be going to the shop “to talk about city funding to help make repairs/improve the site for safety as well as broader issues in the area we can work on together,” she wrote. “I have some ideas and we will do everything we can to help. You deserve a safe and secure experience, and your business is beloved in our city.”

The burglary happened around 1 or 2 a.m. Friday, Pham said. Someone apparently broke a small window in the alley and shimmied through it. “That’s how they got into the shop and a ton of stuff,” he said.

Among the items stolen were tools, equipment, lighting used by workers and a laptop. Pham estimates the value of everything was at least $30,000.

They were still able to open for business, though a cellphone that functions as the shop’s business phone was also taken, which meant people couldn’t reach the shop if they called Friday. Many customers have Pham’s cellphone, so they could contact him there, but he was upset about the sentimental value of the stolen phone.

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The phone belonged to Tuan Pham, Raks’ father who died in 2021. It had photos and videos of Tuan on it — and Raks said he enjoyed looking at them and hearing his dad’s voice. It’s an old Samsung cellphone that was in a black case. On the screen’s wallpaper is a photo of Raks’ father and a sister, who is also deceased.

People in the neighborhood Facebook group suggested starting a GoFundMe for Tuan Auto Repair. Pham said he appreciates the support, but is hoping the business’ insurance will cover their losses and damage.

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There have been 15 burglaries at homes or businesses reported to police in the area where Tuan Auto Repair is, (from Snelling Avenue to Hamline Avenue and Minnehaha Avenue to University Avenue) including Friday’s, according to police data. Throughout all of last year in the same area, there were 10 burglaries reported, down from 24 in 2022 and 32 in 2021.

Pham said he last remembers a burglary at the business in 2010, but he said more recently the “drug stuff” he sees when he cleans around the shop daily and the vandalism has been “unreal.”

Tuan Pham started the auto repair business in 1986. Rak learned how to fix cars when he was 16 and worked there throughout high school. Since he graduated from the University of Minnesota, Rak has worked at the shop full time and became the owner.

Police said Friday that they are investigating the burglary.