Daily Stormer The Most Censored Publication in History
Twin Cities
October 26, 2015
One of two people under arrest in the fatal shooting of Sarah Ann Wierstad, a 24-year-old returning to her St. Paul home after working a double shift, got out of prison two years ago in connection with a murder.
Police arrested Michelle Lee Koester, 42, of Minneapolis and Alvin Rudolph Bell Jr., 24, of St. Paul, on suspicion of murder Tuesday night. Wierstad, a single mother described as hard-working and devoted to her 5-year-old daughter, was killed in her Railroad Island neighborhood Sunday night.
The Ramsey County attorney’s office is reviewing charges against Koester and Bell, and a charging decision could be made Thursday. The two are being held in the Ramsey County Jail.
Asked about their connection to Wierstad, St. Paul police spokesman Steve Linders said Wednesday, “Once the charging documents come out, that will all become clear.”
In 1998, Koester pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree murder in Anoka County. Her brother, Jeremy Watson, then 18, admitted he fired a gun into a house in Coon Rapids that year, intending to scare another man, but killing an 18-year-old as he slept. Watson had Koester, then 25, drive him by the house and he fired his shotgun from the back of the pickup.
Koester received a 20-year sentence and got out of prison in October 2013 on supervised release, in effect until 2018. She has been “under high-level supervision” through Hennepin County Community Corrections since June, said Carolyn Marinan, Hennepin County spokeswoman. Koester’s parole agent had contact with her several times per month, Marinan said.
Inmates in Minnesota prisons generally serve two-thirds of their sentences behind bars and the rest on supervised release in the community, but that did not console Wierstad’s family.
“My first thought is, Why was she let out?” Wierstad’s mother, Julie Zietlow, said Wednesday.
Bell has also served prison time — he was sent to prison in 2010, convicted of aiding and abetting attempted first-degree aggravated robber. He was released in June 2013.
