By Curt Brown

The convergence over 30 minutes of a bloody butcher knife, a keen-eyed firefighter and a bogus story at a hospital emergency room prompted authorities to file second-degree murder charges Monday against a 42-year-old St. Paul man.

Friday: 2:49 p.m. According to the criminal complaint, 36-year-old April Salinas called 911 to say she had been stabbed by a man still at her East Side home at 656 Bush Av. A neighbor described to police a silver-colored van had been parked in the driveway at Salinas' building Friday. She died later at Regions Hospital from five stab wounds.

About 10 minutes later. At E. 7th Street and Lafayette Road, a St. Paul firefighter heading to the East Side noticed a man with a bloody towel around his neck driving a gray van with its flashers on. The van was headed west, away from the crime scene a mile behind him.

Just after 3 p.m. Armstrong Weston arrived at Regions in a gray van, saying he had been stabbed in the neck during a robbery on Rice Street in St. Paul's North End.

3:15 p.m. A bloody knife was found on the sidewalk in front of a music club at 499 Payne Av., a few blocks from where the firefighter had seen the gray van. A right-index fingerprint on that knife matched Weston's prints.

"Little bits and pieces of information of that kind all coming together make a largely circumstantial case," St. Paul police Sgt. Paul Schnell said. "Finding that fingerprint kind of closes the gap."

Weston was charged with one count of intentional second-degree murder and another count of unintentional murder. He also was jailed for allegedly possessing cocaine.

Police say the motive behind the killing is unclear. Weston, on advice from his lawyer, has not given police a statement. Salinas is St. Paul's 13th homicide victim in this year.

"The finding of this physical evidence by our crime lab was key to getting the case charged," St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington said.
 

Copyright © 2006, Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN