Charges in Hopkins murder and Minneapolis attempted murder

A Hopkins man was charged with killing his long-time friend and, in a separate incident, a Minneapolis man was charged with attempted murder in a stabbing that has left the victim in critical condition, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Monday.

Daniel Kevin Johnson, 62, was charged with second-degree murder of another man, identified as C.K., in the victim’s Hopkins apartment Friday night. Johnson is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday.

According to the criminal complaint, another renter called Hopkins police about 10:30 p.m. and said a man holding a large knife with blood on his hands was knocking on apartment doors and making incoherent statements. The man then curled up in a fetal position on the floor in the hallway and dropped the knife at his feet.

When police arrived, Johnson still was on the floor and appeared to be unconscious. He was not wearing shoes and had blood on the heels of his socks and hem of his jeans. They handcuffed him and he appeared intoxicated. He had a preliminary blood alcohol level of .18 and admitted to consuming “pot gummies,” the complaint states.

Police entered the apartment of C.K. and found him dead on the living room floor. He had a deep cut across his throat and stab wounds to his torso. Witnesses and surveillance video indicate that Johnson and the victim had been friends a long time and he biked over to C.K.’s apartment around 4:40 p.m. to hang out as they often did, drinking and consuming marijuana.

In the other case, Jerome Tylon Thomas, 42, who has no permanent address in Minneapolis, was charged with attempted second-degree murder in the severe stabbing of a man identified as M.W.

According to the criminal complaint, the victim was lying on the ground about 6 p.m. Mar. 17 near the intersection of Fifth Street and Second Avenue Southeast bleeding profusely from a stab wound to his neck.

Numerous witnesses saw a man who looked like Thomas and the victim fighting in the street and saw that man stab the victim several times before fleeing in a tan sport utility vehicle with a broken rear window. Police found Thomas the next day in that SUV in the parking lot of a motel in Roseville. In searching him, they recovered a knife and saw what appeared to be dried blood on the vehicle’s center console, on Thomas’ jacket and on one of his pants, the criminal complaint states.

While the victim is still alive, he remains in critical condition. Bail of $500,000, with conditions, was set for Thomas.

Johnson Criminal Complaint (PDF)

Thomas Criminal Complaint (PDF)