Man convicted of murdering North St. Paul woman, apartment fire sentenced to life in prison

Krystal Frasier KSTP

Court records show a North St. Paul man will be spending the rest of his life at the St. Cloud prison after he was convicted last month of being killing a woman in 2022.

Melvin Bilbro, 42, was sentenced Tuesday morning by Judge David Brown to life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder while committing domestic abuse, second-degree intentional murder and first-degree arson in a court trial earlier this year.

While no sentence was read in for the second-degree murder charge, Judge Brown sentenced Bilbro to spend 57 months in prison, which will be served consecutively to the automatic life sentence with no parole for the first-degree murder conviction.

As previously reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, the remains of 43-year-old Shanna Renae Daniels were found inside an apartment on the 2200 block of South Avenue East in North St. Paul on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022.

Bilbro was arrested around 4 a.m. the next day, and formally charged the following week.

A criminal complaint said witnesses had seen Bilbro at the apartment the day of the fire, the complaint notes, and one witness said Bilbro had visited the victim’s apartment unit only 15 minutes before law enforcement arrived.

While searching the victim’s apartment, law enforcement found a bag containing a pack of cigarettes with blood on it, a pair of scissors that “had a lot of blood on it,” and a folding knife with blood, according to court records.

The complaint says officers obtained a warrant for Bilbro’s apartment and recovered shoes that were also “covered in blood.” They also found several other items with traces of blood and a small dog in the bathroom “that smelled of smoke and was covered in soot.”

Police located Bilbro Friday morning, lying in the grass near a trail close to the apartment, according to the criminal complaint.

Bilbro claimed he was at his apartment during the fire and had no explanation for the items recovered from his apartment that had blood on them, the complaint notes. According to court records, Bilbro has four prior felony convictions, including motor vehicle theft, assault in the third degree, criminal sexual conduct in the second degree and attempted murder.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office found the victim “had multiple sharp force injuries,” including to her head and neck.

“She died before the fire started,” the complaint noted.