Roseville teen not guilty of murder in grandmother’s death due to mental illness

Kilat Fitzgerald KSTP

Law enforcement arrest a Roseville homicide suspect on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022. (FILE/KSTP-TV)

A man who was 17 years old when he killed his grandmother and seriously injured other family members was found not guilty on all charges related to the crime in Ramsey County court on Tuesday.

Based on the facts, Matthew Francis Hill, 18, was previously found guilty of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault for an attack that left his grandmother dead and four of his family members injured. Court documents filed in Ramsey County show all of those convictions were dropped “by reason of mental illness or cognitive impairment.”

A judge ordered Hill to be “held in a state hospital or other facility pending completion of the civil commitment process,” court records show.

This latest ruling comes after he was found guilty of the same charges in a stipulated evidence trial back in September.

The verdict states that “Per all available information, it appears Defendant likely began experiencing auditory hallucinations in the weeks or months leading up to the offenses. The hallucinations were at times command in nature and would tell him to engage in behaviors. The weight of the evidence, closest in time to the offense, suggests the Defendant was suffering from psychosis or other symptoms that would render him incapable of knowing right from wrong.”

The attack happened at a Roseville home in the 1100 block of Ryan Avenue West at around 10:20 a.m. on Oct. 25, 2022.

A 911 caller reported her brother “went crazy” and attacked family members with a baseball bat before fleeing the home.

This triggered a shelter-in-place order that was inadvertently sent to cellphones across the Twin Cities metro.

Charging documents state that officers found the Hill’s older sister and mother bloodied with serious head and facial wounds. His 88-year-old grandmother was found dead in a bedroom with apparent stab wounds to her neck.

The documents add that the sister had several cuts to her scalp, including a large wound that required 10 sutures and seven staples, while the mother had facial, skull, jaw, arm and hand fractures, as well as several cuts to her scalp and a serious lip injury that required surgery.

Later that morning, a person who received the emergency alert reported seeing Hill near the State Fairgrounds. He was found by officers walking on Stella Street toward Como Avenue and was arrested.

Court documents note that Hill had a “thousand-yard stare” when he was arrested and said he felt like he was “being someone else.”