A 50-year-old Minneapolis man will serve five years of probation instead of prison time for helping hide the body of a 70-year-old Burnsville man who was shot to death in 2024, with a judge staying a 68-month prison sentence that hangs over him if he violates the terms of his release. Christopher Hawkins was ordered to serve 110 days in jail, which he has already completed, for his role in concealing the remains of Michael Riccio after Josephine Powers shot Riccio in her father's Burnsville home.
According to court records cited by KSTP, Hawkins was sentenced for aiding Powers in hiding Riccio's body at his Minneapolis home after Powers and another person recruited him to move what was described as a package from the Burnsville residence in exchange for a truck. Court records state that Hawkins wrapped the body in a tarp, loaded it into a pickup truck, and later cleaned up blood he found throughout the basement.
Powers shot and killed Riccio on July 9, 2024, according to court records referenced by the same report. Riccio was 70 and, according to Powers' father in a July 2024 interview with KSTP, had previously worked alongside Powers fixing up automobiles, though the father said he had warned Riccio to stay away from his daughter.
How the Shooting Unfolded
An eyewitness who was in the bedroom during the shooting told investigators that Powers and Riccio began arguing before Powers threw objects at him and then shot him once in the head with a black handgun, according to FOX 9. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner confirmed a single gunshot wound to the head as the cause of death, per the same outlet's reporting. During police interviews following his July 2024 arrest, Hawkins told investigators that Powers explained her motive by saying Riccio was “f***ing with her and she could not take it anymore, so she shot him,” as reported by Law & Crime.
Powers initially called Burnsville police on July 18, 2024, falsely claiming an unnamed male acquaintance had shot Riccio ten days earlier, before witness interviews shifted suspicion directly onto her, per criminal complaints described by Patch. When Burnsville officers executed a search warrant at the Keating Court home, they smelled a strong odor of bleach and recovered blood evidence in the garage, hallway, and basement bedroom, along with a patched bullet hole in the wall, the outlet reported.
A Body Hidden Under Tarps in a Shed
Police searched Hawkins' Minneapolis home on July 19, 2024, and found Riccio's remains stored inside a large gray container hidden under tarps and a pallet in the backyard shed on the 3400 block of 2nd Street North. Hawkins told police he saw what appeared to be a body wrapped in garbage bags and rugs, according to court records cited by KSTP, and reported seeing blood throughout the basement before he cleaned it up.
Powers' father, who was away on a two-week vacation at the time of the killing, returned home to find brown paint splatters throughout the residence and later encountered a tall man in a hazmat suit cleaning the walls and tearing up basement carpet, according to charging documents described by Fox 9. In addition to aiding an offender, prosecutors originally charged Hawkins with felony interference with a dead body by concealment for transporting and storing Riccio's remains, the outlet reported. Hawkins was arrested while already being held in jail on an unrelated matter.
The Legal Gap Between Shooter and Accomplice
Powers entered an Alford plea to second-degree intentional murder in February, an arrangement that allows a defendant to maintain claims of innocence while acknowledging prosecutors likely had enough evidence to convince a jury, according to court records reported by Limitless Media. District Judge Stacey Sorensen Green sentenced her in May to 261 months in prison — nearly 22 years — with 669 days of credit for time already served.
Hawkins' far lighter outcome reflects the difference in what Minnesota law allows for someone charged as an accomplice after the fact. Under Minnesota Statutes Section 609.495, an individual who conceals evidence or otherwise aids an offender following a violent crime faces a statutory maximum of up to half the prison sentence or fine applicable to the principal offender, according to the Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Second-degree intentional murder itself carries a statutory maximum of up to 40 years in Minnesota. With his 68-month sentence stayed and his 110-day jail term already served, Hawkins now faces five years of probation, and the prison time only becomes a reality if he violates the terms of his release.
