Sentencing on hold as yet another trial requested for man convicted in real estate agent’s murder

Last-minute motion delays Wiggins sentencing

Lyndon Wiggins has stood trial twice for his role in the murder of Minneapolis real estate agent Monique Baugh, and both times a jury found him guilty on all charges. However, that conviction could be wiped away yet again if a motion for a new trial succeeds.

Wiggins’ defense attorney, Sarah Gad, filed the motion Thursday afternoon, less than an hour before her client was to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole.

Gad already succeeded once in petitioning the Minnesota Supreme Court to vacate her client’s first-degree murder conviction in 2024 on grounds that the judge overseeing the case misstated the law when providing jury instructions. The case was returned to district court.

The defense now says Wiggins’ second trial was “fundamentally unfair,” claiming an accomplice witness was compelled to testify for the prosecution and that the court intimidated defense witnesses by warning them they could be exposed to federal prosecution and, by extension, the death penalty.

During Thursday’s hearing, Hennepin County Judge Mark Kappelhoff agreed to postpone Wiggins’ sentencing while he considered the motion.

Prosecuting attorney Paige Starkey appeared crestfallen at the delay.

“This is just one more insult on top of injury in terms of Monique’s family and, you know, their reasonable expectation that things would be concluded today, as we sit here five years and 11 months after she was kidnapped and murdered,” Starkey said.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office provided the following statement:

“Mr. Wiggins received a fair trial. We will review the defense’s memo and respond in court. However, our thoughts today are with Monique’s family, who were so close to seeing this case resolved.”

Three other people have been convicted and sentenced in Baugh’s death.

Cedric Berry and Berry Davis, the men who kidnapped and shot Baugh, are each serving life sentences.

Elsa Segura, who posed as an interested homebuyer to lure Baugh to a showing in Maple Grove, also had her conviction and life sentence vacated last year, but she later pleaded guilty to kidnapping. She is now serving a 20-year sentence.
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