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WINONA — A Winona man entered a petition to plead guilty to a second-degree murder charge after being charged in the stabbing death of another man last year.
Sean Michael Emmons, 38, is charged in Winona County District Court with second-degree murder and second-degree assault. The plea deal will see the dismissal of the second-degree assault charge along with eight charges in five unrelated cases in Winona and Olmsted counties.
Emmons is accused of stabbing a man in the leg in September 2021. The man died four days later and an autopsy concluded that the man died as "a result of complications of a stab wound of the left lower extremity."
If district Judge Mary Leahy accepts the plea deal, Emmons will be given a 144 month sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for July 15.
Winona police were called on Sept. 13, 2021, to an apartment on East Ninth Street in Winona for a medical situation. Officers met with a man, who is not named in court documents, who told them he had been stabbed by Emmons on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021.
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"Law enforcement only obtained limited information from (the man) as (the man) appeared to be in excruciating pain," the criminal complaint states. "When law enforcement attempted to interview (the man) at the hospital, (the man) was on oxygen and semiconscious."
On Sept. 14, officers learned the man had to be intubated and was unable to talk. He died the following day.
A witness told police that the man had texted him the day of the alleged incident and said he had been stabbed by Emmons. When the person went to the man's residence, the man reportedly said a second person had been in the apartment that day and had "passed out on the bed." Emmons reportedly broke into the apartment through a front window, punched the man "out of a dead sleep" and stabbed him in the knee, according to the criminal complaint.
The man did not immediately seek medical attention, but the witness told police they called 911 two days after the incident after finding the man jaundiced, freezing cold and sweaty, according to the complaint.
