Community Corner
St. Louis Park Teen Accused of Murder Seeks to Combine Trials
Michael Richard Swanson is set for a hearing next week.
A hearing has been set on a request to combine the trials of the St. Louis Park teenager in November.
Judge David Lester set 17-year-old Michael Richard Swanson's hearing for March 8 in Kossuth County court, according to Iowa court records. Swanson's attorney, Charles Kenville, filed the motion to combine the two cases in early February.
Swanson is charged with first-degree murder in both Kossuth and Humboldt counties for the Nov. 15 killings of clerks Vicky Bowman-Hall, 47, and Sheila Myers, 61. The teenager went to Iowa after allegedly fleeing from his St. Louis Park home in his mother's vehicle earlier in the day. Investigators believe that both clerks complied with his demands for cash and cigarettes, but he shot them anyway to keep the clerks from calling the police.
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The teenager is currently set to stand trial in Kossuth County on July 27, while no trial date has been set in Humboldt County.
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