A Blaine man, who was accused of breaking into an Anoka residence the
early morning hours of Dec. 12, 2008, threatening to kill everyone
inside, has pleaded guilty in Anoka County District Court to a felony
charge and has been sent to prison.
by Peter Bodley
Managing editor
A Blaine man, who was accused of breaking into an Anoka residence the early morning hours of Dec. 12, 2008, threatening to kill everyone inside, has pleaded guilty in Anoka County District Court to a felony charge and has been sent to prison.
Anthony Victor Connell, 38, 9047 Polk St. N.E., Blaine, entered a guilty pleaded to a first-degree burglary count and was sent to prison for 57 months March 30. He was given credit for 416 days spent in jail.
A warrant had been issued for the arrest of Connell April 28, 2009 after he failed to appear for a court hearing. He was arrested on the warrant Oct. 7, 2009.
Anoka Police responded to a report of a male breaking into a house on the 2900 block of Eighth Lane shortly before 3 a.m. Dec. 12, 2008 and learned from dispatch that the male was downstairs threatening “to kill them all.”
Police found the front door partially open and a man who matched the description given to them of the suspect standing in the kitchen area with something metal and shiny in his hand, according to the complaint.
The male, identified as Connell, was detained.
A back upstairs bedroom door was opened and a woman said they were the homeowners who called police. The homeowners, 65 and 62, and their daughter, 38, were in the bedroom along with a dog.
According to the daughter’s statement, she was asleep in the lower level and her parents were asleep upstairs when she was awakened by her dog barking continuously, prompting her to get up and look out the lower level window where she saw a male pacing back and forth in the driveway.
She went upstairs to call police, opened an upstairs bedroom window and saw the male trying the front door handle.
When the daughter asked the male what he was doing, she said he yelled obscenities and made the threat to kill them all.
The daughter ran to her parents’ bedroom with her dog, locked the door and waited for police to arrive, fearful that they would be harmed, the complaint states.
Neither the daughter nor her parents said they knew Connell.
According to the complaint, the front door had been forced open and items had been moved in the house, including a set of keys which had been located in the kitchen and were found on the kitchen floor, likely the object Connell had in his hand when confronted by police.
Connell was wearing no shoes and after he was arrested he made numerous comments to police that he was using shrooms (hallucinogenic mushrooms).
Peter Bodley is at peter.bodley@ecm-inc.com
