Man accused of fatally poisoning roommate with thallium indicted on first, second-degree murder charges

A man accused of fatally poisoning his roommate with thallium has been indicted by a grand jury.

On Thursday, a Stearns County grand jury indicted Stuart William Hanmer, 35, for premeditated first-degree murder and intentional second-degree murder.

Court records state that on June 19, St. Cloud police learned a patient at the Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis had a heavy metal screening that resulted in the presence of thallium.

The patient, identified as 33-year-old Cody Ray Ernst, died on June 22.

RELATED: Police: St. Cloud man’s former roommate intentionally poisoned him with Thallium

Medical records show that Ernst went to the emergency room at the St. Cloud Hospital multiple times between May 16 and 22 for symptoms including nausea, vomiting and seizure-like activity.

On May 23, Ernst was admitted to Mercy Hospital and then got transferred to the U of M Fairview Hospital, where a metal screening showed he had a lethal presence of thallium at 693 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter).

According to court documents, Ernst lived at a home with two other men, one of whom was Hanmer.

Investigators interviewed Ernst’s fiancée, who said that Ernst was with Hanmer on May 15 and afterwards started feeling sick.

Law enforcement spoke with Hanmer, who denied poisoning Ernst, but said he was using meth around the time he lived with Ernst and wouldn’t remember if he searched the internet for thallium.

A search warrant was executed at Hanmer’s home and found two phones belonging to him that had multiple searches, including “how long does it take if thallium poisons you” and “how much thallium nitrate is fatal.”

Officers also found PayPal transactions from April 5 and 6, where Hanmer bought a combined 25 grams of thallium metal. Evidence was found that Hanmer watched a video multiple times, including on April 5 and May 14, about how to create thallium sulfate, the criminal complaint notes.

Hanmer was arrested by law enforcement on Sept. 3. His next court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 3.
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