Man charged with killing Minnesota woman appears in court
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The man who evaded police for days after he allegedly killed a Minnesota financial adviser inside her suburban St. Paul office made his first court appearance Tuesday, hours after he was arrested in a northern Twin Cities suburb.
Lucifer Nguyen, 44, of New Hope, was arrested late Monday night. At a court appearance Tuesday in Hastings, his bail was set at $1.5 million without conditions, or $1 million with conditions.
Nguyen is charged with murder in connection with the death of Beverly Cory, 48. He also faces charges of aggravated robbery, burglary and kidnapping.
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Authorities have said there is no known connection between Nguyen and Cory, who lived in Maplewood.
A message left with the public defender who appeared in court with Nguyen was not immediately returned.
Prosecutors said Nguyen went into a house in the suburb of Mendota Heights on Saturday, brandished a gun at a woman and demanded cash. After crashing the car he was driving, he then ran into a senior living center and forced an employee into a laundry room at gunpoint.
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While officers were evacuating the center's residents, they got a report of what appeared to be blood seeping from underneath an office door in a nearby building, prosecutors said. Officers found Cory dead inside.
An autopsy showed she died of a single gunshot to the head.
Police then discovered that Cory's car was missing. It was found Sunday at the Washington County Fairgrounds, about 16 miles (26 kilometers) away.