A 38-year-old Austin man will spend just over five and a half years in state prison after separate felony convictions in Mower and Olmsted counties, stemming from a burglary in which he threatened to kill a victim with a kitchen knife and a domestic assault months later in Rochester. Tyjuan Lavell Williams was sentenced to concurrent prison terms in both cases, with multiple other charges dismissed as part of the resolution.
The Mower County case dates back to September 2025, when Austin police officers responded to the 600 block of Fifth Street NW on a report of fighting and items being thrown, according to the court complaint cited by the Austin Daily Herald. Williams is accused of kicking open the victim's door to get inside, then grabbing the victim and threatening them with a kitchen knife. He also allegedly threatened to kill the victim and, per the police report, threatened to shoot a second victim and threatened to bury a victim. Police also say Williams stole some of the victim's credit cards and gift cards during the encounter before officers took him into custody.
Mower County Court Hands Down Burglary Sentence
Mower County District Court sentenced Williams to just over five and a half years in prison for felony first-degree burglary tied to the September 2025 incident. Under Minnesota Statutes § 609.582, first-degree burglary carries a maximum statutory penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a $35,000 fine, with a mandatory minimum of six months when the crime occurs inside an occupied dwelling, according to the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. His roughly 67-month term lands close to the statewide norm: between 2020 and 2024, Minnesota district courts handed down an average prison sentence of 70.5 months for first-degree burglary convictions involving weapons or dangerous articles, per data from the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission.
Williams has a documented history of domestic violence, with two prior instances of domestic assault noted per the police report. Court records show he was convicted of fifth-degree assault in Mower County in 2019 and of interfering with a 911 call in Olmsted County in 2025. That 911 interference conviction falls under Minnesota Statutes § 609.78, which makes intentionally blocking someone from placing an emergency call a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $3,000 fine, according to the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes.
Second Case Emerged Months Later in Rochester
The Olmsted County case dates back to March, when Rochester police were dispatched to the 2000 block of 41st Street NW for a domestic disturbance. According to the court complaint, Williams pushed the victim to the floor and kicked the victim once in the face. He also allegedly threatened to beat a victim to death, per the police report.
That case resulted in a three-year prison sentence for felony domestic assault, run concurrently with the Mower County term. The felony elevation was possible because Williams already had two or more prior qualified domestic violence-related convictions within the preceding decade — a threshold spelled out in Minnesota Statutes § 609.2242, which allows prosecutors to charge domestic assault as a felony punishable by up to five years in prison under those circumstances. That same statute also imposes a mandatory three-year firearm possession ban on convicted offenders, requiring them to surrender all firearms within three business days of conviction.
Where Williams Will Serve His Time
Williams will serve his sentences at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud, a Level 4 close-security prison established in 1889 that functions as the state's primary reception and intake site for adult male offenders entering the prison system, according to the Minnesota Department of Corrections. Under Minnesota Statutes § 244.101, felony offenders in the state serve two-thirds of their executed sentence in custody and the remaining third on supervised release absent disciplinary extensions — meaning Williams is likely to spend roughly 45 months physically incarcerated on the burglary sentence before becoming eligible for release.
Mower County and Olmsted County both fall under Minnesota's Third Judicial District, an 11-county administrative district covering state courts across southeast Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Judicial Branch. That shared judicial structure links the Austin court that handled the burglary case to the Rochester court that handled the domestic assault charge. Multiple other charges in both the Mower and Olmsted cases were dismissed, though the specifics of any plea negotiations that led to those dismissals were not detailed in available court records.
Victims of domestic abuse in the Austin area can find crisis support, safety planning, and legal advocacy through the Mayo Clinic Health System Crime Victims Resource Center, according to the Minnesota Judicial Branch. In the Rochester area, Dodge and Olmsted Victim Services offers crisis counseling, court accompaniment, and personal advocacy for victims of domestic violence and assault.
