Man will spend over 38 years behind bars for stabbing that killed two people

Joseph Francis Sandoval II, 33, was sentenced Friday in connection to the stabbing and killing of two people in a sober home in St. Paul in 2022.

Sandoval was sentenced to about 38 years in prison on two second-degree murder charges that he had pleaded guilty to, according to court documents.

As previously reported, St. Paul police officers were called to a home on Lawson Avenue East back on October 20, 2022, after a resident ran out of the house screaming that a person had killed someone inside.

Officers made contact with Sandoval who was leaving the house with blood on his clothes and cuts on his face and hands, the criminal complaint says.

Police said he seemed to be under the influence of a substance, and Sandoval said he had taken fentanyl.

Sandoval told officers that two “big guys” had caused the wounds to him and claimed that another had tried to kill him and had “got those other guys too.”

Officers also stated in the complaint that Sandoval said he had sat down on the couch in the sober home and started hearing noises, that “The TV kept saying take your opportunity, so I took my opportunity.”

When asked to elaborate, he answered, “The TV said they’re going to kill me. … The TV said they were gonna kill me and told me to take the opportunity.”

Officers found the bodies of 40-year-old Jason T. Murphy and 56-year-old Jon R. Wentz, both from St. Paul, inside the home in different locations along with a bloody knife and bloody hammer.

The owner of the sober home said Murphy was a handyman who was doing work on the home and Wentz was a resident.