John Jefferson
Inset: Nicole Hammond (Facebook). Background: Michael J. Carpenter in court (KMSP).
A Minnesota man convicted of killing his co-worker by shooting her in the parking lot of their workplace after she rebuffed his advances will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Michael J. Carpenter, 38, learned his fate on Friday for the murder of Nicole Hammond, 28, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office announced in a news release.
Carpenter smirked before he was sentenced after having smiled when he entered the courtroom, local Fox affiliate KMSP reported.
“He smirked so much it’s like now I want him behind the walls,” said Terri Anderson, Hammond’s mother, the outlet reported. “I just want him to pay for what he did to her.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, officers with the St. Cloud Police Department responded at about 6:59 a.m. on Oct. 24, 2022, to a report of shots being fired outside of a textile factory in the 400 block of Lincoln Ave NE.
Once there, first responders said they immediately observed the victim “laying in the parking lot with a puddle of blood around her head.” Despite lifesaving measures, she died at the scene. There, police noted that Hammond’s driver’s side door was open, and a spent shell casing and keys were found near the body.
A witness told police they were pulling into the company parking lot when they saw Carpenter get out of his car and walk toward the south end of the lot. The witness also heard a gunshot coming from that direction and saw Carpenter run to his car and drive away.
A search of Hammond’s cellphone uncovered “numerous text messages” between the victim and Carpenter from the night before the shooting, “indicating [Hammond] did not want to be touched by the defendant [Carpenter], nor did she want to be manipulated by him,” the affidavit states.
“She also informed him to not make things uncomfortable at work,” police wrote in the court document. “Officers also found a text from [Hammond] to another person who stated that the defendant was mad at her. In speaking with various co-workers, they indicated that the defendant had made numerous advances toward [Hammond] but his advances had been repeatedly rebuffed over the course of the past month. Co-workers also described the defendant as having a bad temper.”
While officers were interviewing the victim’s co-workers, it became known that one of them was on the phone with Carpenter, who confirmed that he knew Hammond had been shot and said that he was “not doing okay.” Carpenter at one point during this phone call said he was at his sister’s house, where police responded and took him into custody.
A search of his car revealed a 9 mm handgun and magazines that matched the brand and style of the shell casings found near Hammond’s body.
In an interview with police, Carpenter denied shooting Hammond.
The convicted killer said he was walking toward her car when he “heard a gun shot” and then “saw a person in a hat attending to [Hammond]. Carpenter said he “saw a lot of blood” and was “too traumatized, so he turned around and left” without rendering any aid or calling 911.
“The defendant also admitted to officers that he did not sleep well the night before, as, he kept waking up due to the text argument that he had with [Hammond],” the affidavit states. “The defendant stated that he was upset about that text conversation.”
Law&Crime’s Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
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