Charges Filed in Unusual Murder Case: Suspect Allegedly Blamed Digital Device for Negative Influence

THIEF RIVER FALLS, MN (trfnews.i234.me) Charges have now been filed at Jorge Luis Benitez Estremera of Thief River Falls, Minnesota in the murder of Steven Opdahl of Oklee, Minnesota outside Digi-Key Tuesday night.
criminal charges have now been filed against 32-year-old Jorge Luisa Benitez estromera of Thief River Falls in connection to that murder at digikey Tuesday night estromera has been charged with two counts of varying degrees of second-degree murder and also assault in the third degree now we’ll read through the criminal complaint the names of witnesses and or police officers will not be used a quote on May 9th at approximately 10 12 p.m Pennington County dispatch received a medical call about a man on the ground not breathing deputies were the first law enforcement to arrive on scene outside of digiki upon arrival the deputy was waived down by a digikey employee who showed the deputy where the man was lying on the east side of the building in a designated the smoking area at digikey the deputy checked the man on the ground to see if he could assist but realized he was deceased uh that man has now been identified not from the criminal complaint as Stephen opdahl of Oakley Minnesota uh back to the uh criminal complaint uh a Thief River Police Officer also arrived on the scene walked to the area observed the body line and the right side with a large amount of blood coming from the head area the officer observed a sign a lane to the north of the body with the post of the sign Laying across the legs of the body the officer observed there was blood on the sign the officer observed the body appeared to be a male with severe trauma to the left portion of his head the deputy immediately started to move everyone away from the scene and attempt to preserve it and then obtain information from an employee after Thief River Falls Police over police officers took over the scene employee one employee stated she came out to have her smoke break at approximately 1008 pm and saw the body of the male who was later identified as so Stephen opdahl who was also an employee at digikey employee one stated that she did not see anyone else around and immediately called 9-1-1 the deputy was approached by another digikey employee employee number two who stated she was given an ID by another digikey employee employee three who had found it on the ground nearby the ID belonged to Stephen opedahl and had blood on it optol Deputy it was shown where the ID was found the ID was placed back in its found position the ID was located farther north from where optal’s body was found at approximately 10 57 PM a police investigator arrived on scene investigator observed severe injuries to optal’s head and a parking pole with a sign like lying next to the body the investigator learned there were articles of clothing in the garbage can that was outside near the northeast corner of the building that appeared to have blood on them the investigator observed a blood trail going from the parking lot to the north of the victim’s body down the sidewalk into the smoking area where the victim’s body was Elaine uh Thief River Falls uh Deputy another deputy chief arrived on scene and was directed to the smoking area on the east side of the building at some point that the deputy was then directed to the area north of the body toward the public entrance to digikey uh Deputy observed there was blood on the ground on the sidewalk just to the east of the public entrance the deputy also observed a paper cup line on the ground a digit key ID lying next to the curb and more blood on the ground next to the location where the ID was found at approximately 10 45 PM uh Pennington County uh Chief Deputy uh uh requested assistance in the investigation at 1103 PM a deputy contacted the Minnesota BCA crime team and law enforcement learned the entire incident should be on surveillance camera uh deputies uh met with the digikey security manager and began reviewing digikey surveillance video of Stephen opdahl being attacked by an unknown defendant identified much later as a defendant Jorge estromera the defendant was observed to be wearing a wearing a white in-color T-shirt lighter colored pants flip-flop Footwear law enforcement observed the following from the surveillance video at uh 10 19 p.m a white four-door car being driven by the defendant estromera entered the digikey parking lot from the East and parks near the northeast corner of the building the defendant observed as the sole occupant visible in the car at uh excuse me that should be 9 19 at 9 44 p.m uh Stephen opdahl exits the Northeast public entry door is observed lighting a cigarette and walking around the sidewalk area between the white four-door car and building opt observed holding a white Cup in his left hand at 9 45 p.m Stephen optol is observed walking over and standing on the curb in front of the white four-door car and facing the white four-door car 945 the defendant is observed exiting his V his vehicle and approaching optol 9 49 45-29 a media upon reaching Stephen opdahl the defendant knocks the cigarette out of optol’s right hand grabs the cup from Stephen opdahl’s left hand and throws it on the ground the defendant and Stephen optahal appear to exchange words at 9 45 39 the defendant punches Stephen opdahl on the left side of his head causing him to fall and he grabs the side of his neck and head the defendant approaches optol again and the two appear to exchange words 9 45 49 Stephen optol starts to walk back toward the public entry of digikey the defendant follows him 9 45 52 the defendant grabs the back of Abdul’s shirt while he’s walking away the defendant pulls back and grabs him by the neck with both hands the defendant then pushes opdal over the vehicle and slams opdal’s head into the windshield of the white four-door car opdal’s Stephen optahl appears to break the car’s windshield at 9 46 the defendant appears to throw uh two punches into Stephen opdahl’s face knocking him to the ground alongside the vehicle optol appears to hold up his hand in defense the defendant kicks off his sandals and walks around Stephen opdahl the defendant leans down making hand gestures at opdal at uh 9 4608 the defendant throws another punch at Stephen hopdel’s head optal appears to cover his head trying to protect himself the defendant then Paces back and forth while opdal is on the ground 9 46-26 uh optol sits up and the defendant throws about six punches causing opdale to try and cover and protect himself 9 46 34 the defendant places uh up uh Paces around optol then runs that and kicks optol in the rib area the defendant then kicks octal in the back of the head uh sending him into the curb striking his neck the defendant then Stomps on optol’s chest about two times 9 46 40 the defendant grabs opdal’s right foot and drab drags him backward approximately four feet and throws another punch to his head the defendant then steps back and optol tries to get up uh 9 46 45 the defendant again kicks opto and in the back sending optol face first into the sidewalk optol rolls over tries to get up the defendant kicks him in the back again opdal again rolls around to get to his knees the defendant then kicks opt all in the left shoulder area causing him to fall in the back in the parking spot on the west side of the white four-door car the defendant steps around optoll kicks opt all again in the shoulder area the defendant Paces around optoll then walks up to the sidewalk area optoll remains sitting down while the defendant walks back and squats down to uh Steven opdahl’s eye level that offended and opt all appear to be talking 9 47-22 the defendant Walks Behind optol and grabs the top of opto’s head with his left hand and Chin with his right hand and he appears to be attempting to twist opdal’s head opdal grabs a hold of the defendant’s arms and is able to break the defendant’s grip the defendant is throwing uh about five more punches at Abdul’s ahead and body the defendant Paces around by his car again up was able to make it to his feet blood can be seen covering the left side of opdahl’s face optal walks back toward the entry door to digikey with the defendant following him optal turns around and faces the defendant the defendant and opt-all appear to be talking the defendant approaches uh optol again opdal tries to walk away the op defendant appears to throw another punch to abdall’s body then uh Stephen opdahl tries to run heading south down the sidewalk to the east side of the building the defense and defendant catches him whips him around and throws him on the ground optol rolls to the sidewalk and sits on the sidewalk 2148 9 48 18 the defendant walks over to the building and grabs a sign on a pulse line next to the building Stephen opdahl quickly gets up and starts to run down the sidewalk the defendant chases opt all with the sign in his hand the defendant strikes opdal in the head with the top of the sign optol falls into the designated smoking area optol did not put his hands out to catch himself from the fall and was then motionless the defendant repeatedly strikes Stephen opdahl in the head and neck area with a top portion of the sign numerous times the defendant throws a sign at optol leaving the sign Laying across his legs the defendant walks back to his vehicle the defendant puts his sandals back on and returns to his vehicle uh the defendant exits this vehicle walks in the back of the vehicle grabbing a jug of water from the trunk and then washing his hands the defendant is observed throwing the water jug back into the trunk and returning to the driver’s side of the vehicle 950 607 the defendant gets out of the vehicle removing his shirt and wiping his hands down his shirt the defendant then stares over in the area of Steven opdahl’s body for approximately seven seconds then looks around and returns to his vehicle uh then 958.08 the defendant exits the vehicle wearing a dark colored shirt with a number 23 on the back the defendant wraps a towel around his waist grabs what appears to be clothing he was wearing at the time of the assault carrying his clothes over the garbage can discarding them in the garbage can the defendant returns to his vehicle at uh 1007 33 a female leaves digikey to get into the passenger side of the defendant’s vehicle at 2208 the defendant’s vehicle leaves in law enforcement no unique characteristic of the vehicle that subsequently LED them to the defendant at uh 10 11 29 a female is observed walking North on the sidewalk to the east of the digiki building and walking past the smoking area seeing the body of Stephen opdahl the female is observed continuing North and flagging down to people at uh is 10 15 p.m Deputy a first Deputy arrived on the scene at no time during the incident did Stephen opdahl show any signs of aggression toward the defendant then early Wednesday morning May 10th at 12 17 a.m a pine to Prairie Drug Task Force officer reported that he believed he had found the defendant’s vehicle in the parking lot of apartment complex in Thief River a number of officers went to the apartment associated with the parking spot after after several unanswered Knox officers entered the apartment finding the defendant and his girlfriend inside died officers noticed the defendant matched the male suspect on the surveillance video of the assault the defendant was subsequently arrested and taken to the law enforcement center the female spoke to law enforcement and identified the defendant as her boyfriend who picked her up from work at digikey around 10 pm on the east side of digiki next to Arctic Cat in a white car she stated that she got in the car and saw the defendant had no pants on and the defender told her he had gotten into a fight the defendant told her someone had been looking at him and he punched someone she did not see any of the altercation she asked the defendant about the damage to the windshield and the defendant told her that he did not know during a later formal interview she said the defendant told her someone was standing right next to the car smoking and that person was just staring at him and he felt threatened and he had said that he had punched him the defendant claimed he felt a negative force from this person she said the defendant had never been arrested for anything ever assaulted anyone or bed violent towards her or anyone on May 10th uh agents interviewed the defendant defendants with the assistance of language line uh they’re offended admitted to assaulting a person at digikey the defendant claimed the person he assaulted was contaminated and needed to be taken out of the system but he did not know the person and he was not afraid of the person 32 year old Jorge Luis Benitez es Romero facing two counts of second degree murder and one count of assault in the third degree it’s expected will make his first court appearance on Friday I’m Neil Berg reporting for itrfnews.i234.me