Lakeville man who killed his pregnant sister pleads guilty

A man accused of murdering his pregnant sister in Lakeville in 2024 has pleaded guilty ahead of his trial and will serve a life sentence.

Jack Joseph Ball, 24, entered a guilty plea on Wednesday, admitting guilt to first-degree murder and first-degree murder of an unborn child. The plea will see two other charges dropped: second-degree murder and second-degree murder of an unborn child.

Sentencing has not taken place yet, but the guilty plea asks Ball to be given a life sentence without parole.

Ball was arrested back on May 23, 2024, after police were called to a home on the border of Lakeville and Farmington around 11 p.m.

A 911 caller, Ball’s mother, said her daughter, 30-year-old Bethany Ann Israel, had gone to dinner with her brother, Ball, earlier that night, but she got concerned after not hearing from Israel.

Deciding to drive to Ball’s house, the mother saw Ball quickly leave the house when she arrived, and upon entering the building, found blood on the floor.

As officers searched, they found body parts inside the home, later identified as belonging to Israel. Police were then called to another house in Rosemount after a man saw a man, later identified by police as Ball, place what appeared to be a body part on their front step. Ball was found near a shed, covered in blood, surrounded by other body parts, court documents state.

Israel was around four months pregnant when she was killed.

Credit: Friends of Bethany Israel, shown with her husband

Court documents state that police found messages written by Ball, in which he reported writing that he was angry his sister was pregnant because she was “no longer innocent.”

According to a news release from the Dakota County Attorney’s Office, Ball is using mental illness as a defense and a court trial on Ball’s mental illness defense is scheduled for May 21.
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