A North Saint Paul man is accused of killing his 69-year-old father by striking him twice in the head with a hammer at his parents’ home, according to a criminal complaint.
Jamal Jevonta Nash, 29, faces two counts of second-degree murder: one alleging he killed his father intentionally, the other that his father died while Nash was committing a second-degree assault. The complaint was filed Oct. 20 in Ramsey County District Court, and bail was set at $1 million.
According to the complaint, officers were sent at about 1:30 p.m. Oct. 18 to a home in the 2700 block of Chippewa Avenue, where a 911 caller reported that her son had struck her husband in the head with a hammer. Officers found the 69-year-old man unresponsive and bleeding heavily from his head. He was taken to Regions Hospital and died at 6:43 a.m. the next day.
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The woman told officers Nash had moved into the home the day before. She said his father had set up a TV in Nash’s room and was unpacking in the living room when Nash ran out of his room and swung a hammer at him. She tried to grab it, but Nash swung again before she wrestled it away, striking the right side of his father’s head twice without warning or any argument, the complaint says.
Nash cried and screamed, then ran out of the house after his mother told him they needed to call 911, according to the complaint. Officers found and arrested him after his brother reached him on a speakerphone call and the family learned where he was.
After being read his rights, Nash told officers, “Someone was attacking my whole family,” and later said, “Somebody hit my father, and my mother was crying.” Asked whether it was an accident, he said yes. He later said, “I hit my father. He was holding me for hostage,” and admitted hitting him in the head with a hammer twice, according to the complaint.
Officers recovered a hammer from the home. Each murder count carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, according to the complaint.
