Prosecutors have charged a Saint Paul man with murder in the death of a 61-year-old man who was punched once and fell outside the Dorothy Day Center in downtown Saint Paul, a killing captured on surveillance video that prosecutors say came without any provocation.
Jerry Jovan Harris, 37, was charged this week in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree unintentional murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of Isaiah Jacob Wilson. The murder count, which alleges he caused Wilson’s death while committing a felony assault rather than that he intended to kill, carries a maximum of 40 years in prison; the manslaughter count carries up to 15 years. A judge set his bail at $1 million, and he is scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday morning.
Saint Paul police were called around 6:30 p.m. on August 3 to the 400 block of Dorothy Day Place, where they found staff giving CPR to Wilson, who was unconscious and not breathing, according to the complaint. Medics got his pulse back and took him to Regions Hospital, where he arrived in cardiac arrest. He died on August 7 after being taken off life support.
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A security worker at the Higher Ground shelter first thought Wilson had overdosed and gave him Narcan, the complaint says. The worker later reviewed camera footage and saw that Wilson had been assaulted before he fell.
Surveillance video showed a man walk up and punch Wilson, who fell, hit the back of his head on the ground and did not move again, according to the complaint. The man who threw the punch walked away, and the complaint says there was no altercation before it. Two Higher Ground employees identified the man as Harris, and one said she recognized him from previous incidents on the campus.
A CT scan showed Wilson had a fractured facial bone and bleeding on the brain, and later testing found he was brain dead, the complaint says.
At the time of the killing, Harris was facing charges in another Ramsey County case and was on diversion in a Hennepin County felony case, according to the complaint and court records.
In the pending Ramsey County case, Harris is charged with gross misdemeanor third-degree riot and gross misdemeanor fifth-degree assault. Prosecutors allege that in August 2025 he and three other people kicked and stomped another person near Dorothy Day Place, the same downtown area where Wilson was killed. That case remains open.
The Hennepin County case is a felony check forgery. Prosecutors allege that in February 2025 Harris tried to cash a forged $875 check at a Bloomington credit union and fled when an employee grew suspicious and said she needed to call the account holder. He left behind his own identification and debit card, according to that complaint, and the check was never cashed. He was placed on diversion.
Harris also has a 2023 conviction out of Ramsey County. He was originally charged with felony domestic assault by strangulation and two felony drug counts after a February 2023 incident in Little Canada, in which a woman told deputies he choked her and slammed her head against the floor until she lost consciousness. Deputies reported finding marijuana, cocaine and pills when they stopped him nearby. Harris told investigators he had acted in self-defense. He was sentenced in August 2023 on a misdemeanor domestic assault.
