A 24-year-old Aurora, Minnesota man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for trying to kill his father's girlfriend with a rifle in an August 2024 shooting that she survived only because she tripped and fell as the bullet passed over her. Landon Terrance Tuomala was convicted of attempted second-degree murder with intent following a stipulated evidence trial, and a judge handed down the sentence Wednesday in St. Louis County District Court.
According to Tampa Free Press, the shooting happened on East Third Avenue South in Aurora on August 26, 2024. The woman told police Tuomala had recently moved in with her and his father, and that she saw him aiming a .30-30 lever-action rifle at her before she turned away and ran outside. As she fled, she tripped and fell — and it was in that instant that Tuomala fired, sending the rifle bullet passing over her body without striking her, per the same report.
Even after she fell, the woman told police she saw Tuomala still pointing the rifle in her direction. She managed to escape the residence, and neighbors who heard the rifle shot followed by screams helped bring her to a nearby pickup truck for safety, the outlet reports. She later told investigators she was terrified and thought she was going to die.
Officers Found a Bullet Lodged in a Neighbor's House
Emergency dispatchers received two 911 calls shortly before 7 p.m. that evening, including one from Tuomala himself, who told dispatchers he had just shot someone and was no longer armed. He believed he had struck the woman. When East Range Police Department officers arrived at the home on East Third Avenue South, Tuomala walked outside with his hands raised, and responding officers observed that the victim was visibly upset and shaking. Investigators later recovered a stray bullet inside a neighboring house.
Criminal complaints filed in St. Louis County District Court charged Tuomala with attempted second-degree murder, second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, and intentional discharge of a firearm, according to MN Crime. Court records reviewed by Law & Crime indicate Tuomala had been discharged from two separate treatment centers before the shooting.
A Downward Departure From Guidelines
Judge Michelle Anderson conducted the stipulated evidence trial — a procedure under Minnesota Rule of Criminal Procedure 26.01, subdivision 3, that lets a judge determine guilt from agreed-upon written evidence without a jury or live witnesses. Anderson ultimately convicted Tuomala of attempted second-degree murder with intent, not premeditated murder, and sentenced him to 120 months in prison on August 12.
That sentence marked a significant downward departure. State sentencing guidelines had recommended a 173-month term, meaning Anderson's ruling cut Tuomala's prison time by 53 months over the objection of prosecutors, who opposed the reduction, Law & Crime reports. The judge found that Tuomala lacked substantial capacity for judgment due to a mental or physical impairment at the time of the shooting, and cited that impairment in granting the reduced sentence.
Still, the St. Louis County Attorney's Office said the court ruled that Tuomala did not meet the legal threshold for a mental illness defense. Under Minnesota Statutes § 611.026, a defendant cannot be acquitted on mental illness grounds unless they prove that a mental disease or defect kept them from understanding the nature of their act or that it was wrong — a strict standard separate from a clinical diagnosis of impaired judgment.
What the Sentence Means Behind Bars
Under Minnesota Statutes § 244.101, felony offenders must serve two-thirds of an executed prison sentence before becoming eligible for supervised release. For Tuomala, that means a minimum of roughly 80 months — about 6.7 years — behind bars before he can be considered for release, assuming no disciplinary extensions add to his term.
Prosecutors said Tuomala was sentenced after attempting to shoot and kill his father's girlfriend, closing a case that stretched nearly two years from the night neighbors heard a gunshot and screams on a quiet Iron Range street to a courtroom ruling that weighed mental capacity against the intent to kill.
