A 35-year-old St. Cloud man is facing two felony counts after police say he threatened to kill a woman while holding a small wooden-handled blade in an alley near children, then separately threatened a man inside the home where he lived. Christopher Steven Kenne was charged in Stearns County District Court following the November 1 incident, according to court documents.
Police were dispatched to an alley near 9th Street South and 7th Avenue South at about 1:59 p.m. that day, according to the MN CRIME case page. The woman told investigators Kenne approached her as she walked through the alley and threatened to kill her, repeatedly getting in her face, according to the criminal complaint detailed by MN CRIME. She said Kenne held a small blade with a wooden handle while making the threat.
The woman said she struck Kenne in self-defense and to protect children who were nearby, per the complaint. Two men who witnessed the confrontation told police they saw Kenne swing at the woman first, backing up her account of what happened in the alley.
A Second Threat Inside His Own Home
The complaint also describes a separate incident shortly before the alley confrontation, in which Kenne allegedly threatened to kill a man inside the home where he lived. That man told police he locked himself in his bedroom while Kenne pounded on the door, yelled, and threatened to kill him, and said he heard Kenne threaten to slit or cut his throat. Another man who was present at the home gave police an account matching the first man's version of events, according to the complaint.
Kenne is charged with two felony counts of threats of violence, each listed on the case record as reckless-disregard-risk threats, the unlinked case page shows. Under Minnesota's threats-of-violence statute, a person convicted under the law's conditions may face up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both, according to the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. That penalty range reflects the statute's general terms and does not indicate what sentence, if any, would apply in this case.
Stearns County's Court System
Stearns County, the largest county in central Minnesota, encompasses St. Cloud, where the alley confrontation took place. Felony prosecutions in the county move through the Seventh Judicial District at the Stearns County Courthouse in St. Cloud.
The case adds to a string of recent St. Cloud charges involving alleged weapon threats. In one separate case, a St. Cloud man was accused of chasing a woman with a tactical axe, resulting in a felony second-degree assault charge with a dangerous weapon, according to KFIL Radio. In another, 55-year-old John Bendtsen was charged with felony threats of violence and felony domestic assault after allegedly pulling a knife on his roommate, as reported by WJON.
