Man shot and killed in St. Paul was set up by a woman to be robbed, charges say
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Prosecutors have charged a 27-year-old St. Paul woman in the death of 37-year-old Andrew Gutzman, who was shot and killed in a home in the Como neighborhood last week.
Charging documents say police were alerted to Gutzman's death on July 5, when a woman who was covered in blood approached another person and said a man was dead inside a home on the 900 block of Hatch Avenue. Investigators determined that Gutzman had died some six to 12 hours before.
The woman, Gutzman's ex-girlfriend, told police that Gutzman sold meth and marijuana from his home, and was very paranoid because he had been robbed multiple times, documents say.
According to the criminal complaint, the ex-girlfriend said the day before, she went through Gutzman's phone and found he had been paying for sex work. She left the home with her belongings in a suitcase, and came back the next day to find him bleeding. Investigators eliminated the woman as a suspect based on her movements captured on surveillance video, documents say.
Officers reviewed Gutzman's phone records and found that in the early hours of July 5, he had phone calls from the woman that prosecutors eventually charged. Charges say that her phone number was tied to an advertisement for sexual services, and it was also connected to a report she made with police saying that her Glock 9mm firearm was stolen from her apartment on May 31.
Surveillance video also showed a maroon Ford Fusion in front of Gutzman's home around 1:40 a.m. on July 5, which is registered to the same woman, documents say.
Police arrested the woman on July 10 after responding to her online posting. In a post-Miranda interview, she said she was minding her own business, and said she had a permit to carry.
According to documents, the woman had a tattoo on her neck that was also the passcode to her phone. Officers found a text conversation on her phone that took place between 1:15 a.m. and 1:42 a.m. on July 5, in which she says "his whole house is empty," and tells the recipient to "start walking to the door he getting in the shower imasnatch and run." Later, documents say she wrote "ima walk out yall just come in."
The documents say that officers believe she set up Gutzman's robbery with the person she texted, providing details to the house layout and his condition and location. Officers believe she was acting as a lookout in the area when she left his home.
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner determined Gutzman's death to be from a gunshot wound to the head and neck. The charges do not say who shot Gutzman.
The woman was charged with second-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 40 years.