Heidi Firkus was 25 when she was fatally shot at home in St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway neighborhood. The case went unresolved for more than a decade.
Nicholas Firkus, then 27, told police that an intruder burst in and he and the unknown man struggled over Firkus’ shotgun. He said the gun went off twice, striking Heidi in the back and wounding Nicholas in the thigh. Heidi died at the scene.
In 2021, Nicholas Firkus was charged and a jury found him guilty of first-degree premeditated murder in 2023.
Long wait for court’s decision
Nicholas Firkus, who turned 43 on Wednesday, has maintained there was an intruder in their home. At his sentencing in 2023 to life in prison without the possibility of parole, he said he “will maintain until my dying breath my innocence of this crime.”
In April 2024, as Firkus appealed his conviction, the Minnesota Supreme Court’s justices heard oral arguments from Firkus’ attorney and a prosecutor from the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.
In July 2024, the court issued an order that said, “to fully inform our consideration of this case, supplemental briefing and reargument is needed.” They asked a series of questions and requested both sides submit briefs with their legal arguments.
Such evidence is described by the Minnesota Judicial Branch as “facts or testimony not based on actual personal knowledge or observation, by which other non-substantiated facts can be reasonably inferred.”
For example, a person seen running away from a shooting while holding a gun is circumstantial evidence, while direct evidence could be an eyewitness testifying they saw the suspect shoot the victim.
Circumstantial evidence also includes DNA evidence on a gun: While it can link a person to a murder weapon, it doesn’t directly prove they used the gun to shoot someone.
In Minnesota, jurors are instructed to treat direct and circumstantial evidence the same, and that the law doesn’t prefer one form of evidence over the other.
When a conviction is based on circumstantial evidence and there’s an appeal, appellate courts are to use a two-step analysis, according to the Minnesota Court of Appeals standards of review.
“The first step is to identify the circumstances proved,” the standards of review says. “… We consider only those circumstances that are consistent with the verdict. This is because the jury is in the best position to evaluate the credibility of the evidence.”
“The second step is to determine whether the circumstances proved are consistent with guilt and inconsistent with any rational hypothesis except that of guilt,” the standards continue. “We review the circumstantial evidence not as isolated facts, but as a whole.”
Firkus’ attorney, Robert Richman, noted in a legal briefing that the state Supreme Court “has repeatedly refused to abandon this stricter scrutiny” of circumstantial evidence, including in their 2024 reversal of a man’s conviction for aiding and abetting murder.
The Minnesota Board of Public Defense and the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in their brief urged the court to “maintain its well-established circumstantial evidence standard of review.”
But the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, Minnesota Attorney General’s Office and Minnesota County Attorneys Association asked the state Supreme Court to change the review standard for circumstantial evidence.
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Tommy Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the 2014 murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, the mother of Heather Mack, during a luxury vacation in a case also known as the Bali “suitcase murder.”
Schafer was deported back to the United States from Bali International Airport on Tuesday evening, after serving his sentence and receiving a number of remissions for good behavior, said Felucia Sengky Ratna, head of the Bali Regional Office of the Directorate General of Immigration, in a statement.
The badly battered body of the 62-year-old von Wiese-Mack, a wealthy Chicago socialite, was found inside the trunk of a taxi parked at the upscale St. Regis Bali Resort in August 2014.
Heather Mack, who was almost 19 and a few weeks pregnant at the time of the killing, and her then-21-year-old boyfriend, Schaefer, were arrested on the island a day after the body was found.
FILE – Tommy Schaefer of Chicago, Ill., who alongwith his girlfriend Heather Mack is accused of murdering Mack’s mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack whose body was later found in a suitcase, arrives for his trial hearing at the district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Jan. 21, 2015. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati, File)
Mack served seven years of a 10-year prison sentence in Bali for helping to kill her mother and was deported in October 2021.
She was also sentenced to 26 years in prison in Chicago in January 2024, after she pleaded guilty to helping kill her mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase during their vacation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against a private prison company facing a lawsuit alleging immigration detainees were forced to work and paid only $1 a day in Colorado.
The unanimous ruling is a procedural defeat for the GEO Group, but it’s not a final decision. The company is fighting a lawsuit from 2014 alleging detainees in Aurora had to perform unpaid janitorial work and other jobs for little pay to supplement meager meals.
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GEO defended its practices and argued that the case should be tossed out because it’s immune from lawsuits as a government contractor.
After a judge disagreed, the company asked the Supreme Court to allow it to quickly appeal the ruling. But the justices refused.
The Florida-based GEO Group is one of the top private detention providers in the country, with management or ownership of about 77,000 beds at 98 facilities. Its contracts include a new federal immigration detention center where Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested at a protest in May 2025, before the case against the Democrat was dropped.
Similar lawsuits have been brought on behalf of immigration detainees elsewhere, including a case in Washington state, where the company was ordered to pay more than $23 million.
You are a beginning or intermediate skier, allergic to long lift lines, more interested in peace and quiet than après-ski action. Or you have young kids, ripe for introduction to skiing or snowboarding. Or you simply want a rustic mountain getaway, one where you can amble through a woodsy little village with zero Starbucks.
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These traits make you a good candidate for June Lake, the eastern Sierra town that lives most of its life in the shadow of bigger, busier Mammoth Lakes.
“It’s way family-friendlier than Mammoth,” said Daniel Jones after a day of June Lake snowboarding with Lorena Alvarado and children Gabriela Gonzales, 7, and Amirah Jones, 2. They had come from Riverside, a first-time visit for the kids.
Like me, they’d arrived in time to savor the sight of the Sierra under all the snow that fell in late December. That storm knocked out power for several days, but led to the opening of all the trails on June Mountain, the town’s ski resort.
The main road to June Lake is the 14-mile June Lake Loop, a.k.a. State Route 158, which branches off from U.S. 395 about 10 miles north of the exit for Mammoth, roughly 320 miles north of Los Angeles.
After a day of snowboarding at June Mountain, Daniel Jones and Lorena Alvarado of Riverside, California, head for the parking lot with children Gabriela Gonzalez, 7, and Amirah Jones, 2.. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Rush Creek, seen here, feeds into Silver Lake a few miles from the village of June Lake. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
From the chairlifts at June Mountain ski resort, visitors get broad views. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
The Tiger Bar has anchored June Lake’s downtown since 1932. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Natalie and Chris Garcia of Santa Barbara play with their daughter, Winnie, and a duck at June Lake Brewing. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Pino Pies, open since 2025 in June Lake, offers New Zealand-style meat pies. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
When part of Highway 158 closes to auto traffic in winter, hikers and snowshoers inherit a broad, mostly flat path with views of Silver Lake. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Hikers and dogs navigate Obsidian Dome Trail, just outside June Lake along U.S. 395. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Double Eagle Resort in June Lake. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
The June Lake Villager Motel in June Lake. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
From the chairlifts and slopes of June Mountain ski resort, visitor often get lake views. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
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After a day of snowboarding at June Mountain, Daniel Jones and Lorena Alvarado of Riverside, California, head for the parking lot with children Gabriela Gonzalez, 7, and Amirah Jones, 2.. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Once you leave 395, things get rustic quickly. The two-lane loop threads its way among forests and A-frames and cabins, skirting the waters of June Lake and the lake’s village, which is only a few blocks long. Check out the three-foot icicles dripping from the eaves and keep an eye out for the big boulder by the fire station on the right.
After the village, you pass Gull Lake (the tiniest of the four lakes along the loop) and the June Mountain ski area. Then, if you’re driving in summer, the road loops back to 395 by way of Silver Lake and Grant Lake.
But in winter, the northern part of that loop is closed to cars, Maybe this is why the village, mountain and environs so often feel like a snowbound secret.
As for the June Mountain ski area, its 1,500 accessible acres make it much smaller than Mammoth Mountain (with whom it shares a corporate parent). And it has a larger share of beginner and intermediate runs — a drag for hotshots, maybe, but a boon for families.
By management’s estimate, June Mountain’s 41 named trails are 15% beginner level and 40% intermediate. (At Mammoth, 59% of 180 named trails are rated difficult, very difficult or extremely difficult.) Leaning into this difference, June Mountain offers free lift tickets to children 12 and under. (Adult lift tickets are typically $119-$179 per day.)
The ski area is served by six chairlifts, and just about everyone begins by riding chair J1 up to the June Meadows Chalet (8,695 feet above sea level). That’s where the cafeteria, rental equipment, lockers and shop are found and lessons begin.
That’s also where you begin to notice the view, especially the 10,908-foot Carson Peak.
“Usually, me and my family go to Big Bear every year, but we wanted to try something different. Less people. And a lot of snow,” said Valeriia Ivanchenko, a 20-year-old snowboarder who was taking a breather outside the chalet.
“No lines and lots of big, wide-open runs,” said Brian Roehl, who had come from Sacramento with his wife.
“The lake views are nice, too,” said Roxie Roehl.
June Lake is a 30-minute drive from Mammoth. Because both operations are owned by Denver-based Alterra Mountain Co., Mammoth lift tickets are generally applicable at June. So it’s easy to combine destinations.
Or you could just focus on June Lake, an unincorporated community with about 600 people, one K-8 public school and one gas station (the Shell station where 158 meets 395).
In summer, when it’s busiest, fishers and boaters head for the lakes and you can reach Yosemite National’s eastern entrance with a 25-mile drive via the seasonal Tioga Road.
In winter and summer alike, the heart of June Lake’s village is dominated by the 94-year-old Tiger Bar & Café (which was due to be taken over by new owners in January); Ernie’s Tackle & Ski Shop (which goes back to 1932 and has lower rental prices than those at June Mountain); the June Lake General Store and June Lake Brewing.
At the brewery — JLB to locals — I found Natalie and Chris Garcia of Santa Barbara and their daughter Winnie, 18 months old and eager to chase down a duck on the patio.
“This is her first snow,” Natalie Garcia said, adding that June Lake “just feels more down-home … less of a party scene.”
“We built a snowman,” said Chris Garcia.
It’s fun to imagine that rustic, semi-remote places like this never change, but of course they do, for better and worse. The Carson Peak Inn steakhouse, a longtime landmark, is closed indefinitely. Meanwhile, Pino Pies, which offers New Zealand-style meat pies, opened in the village last spring. (I recommend the $13 potato-top pie.)
Next time I’m in town I hope to try the June Deli (which took over the former Epic Cafe space in the village last year) and the June Pie Pizza Co. (New York-style thin crusts) or the Balanced Rock Grill & Cantina. And I might make a day trip to Mono Lake (about 15 miles north).
I might also repeat the two hikes I did in the snow.
For one, I put crampons on my boots and headed about 3 miles south on U.S. 395 to the Obsidian Dome Trail, a mostly flat route of just under a mile — great for snowshoes or walking dogs.
For the other hike, I headed to the closed portion of June Lake Loop and parked just short of the barricade. Beyond it, a hiker or snowshoer finds several miles of carless, unplowed path, with mountains rising to your left and half-frozen Rush Creek and Silver Lake to the right.
“You get up to the lake and you hear the ice cracking. It’s wonderful,” said Mike Webb, 73, whom I met on the trail with his son, Randy, 46, and Randy’s 10-year-old and 12-year-old.
“This is serenity up here,” said Webb. “If you’re looking for a $102 pizza, go to Mammoth.”
Getting there
It’s a 320-mile drive from Los Angeles to June Lake, which is about 7,500 feet above sea level. Depending on weather conditions, snow tires or chains are sometimes required on U.S. 395 or State Route 158. Before any visit, be sure to check the status of those roads.
Where to stay
If you can afford its rates ($299 and up), the year-round Double Eagle Resort is the most comfortable hotel in the area. It stands along the June Lake Loop, about three miles beyond the village, 1.6 miles past the ski resort, with 32 rooms and cabins, a spa, a 60-foot indoor pool and a pair of ponds that staffers stock with fish in summer. I had breakfast and dinner, both pleasant, in the resort restaurant, Eagle’s Landing.
In the Heidelberg Inn, which opened in 1927, visitors find an enormous stone fireplace and stuffed bear in the lobby. Converted to vacation condos in the 1980s, the building looked tired to me (Jacuzzi closed, discoloration in lobby ceiling, DVD/VCR player beneath my TV) but service was helpful. Rates for one-bedroom units (with kitchens) start around $239.
Also in the village, with lower prices, the June Lake Villager Motel is a rambling property beneath a vintage mid-century sign. The Villager (roughly $150-$300 per night) has 24 units, of which 16 have kitchens. No two units are alike, but the several I saw were clean and comfortable.
