Charges: Woman fatally shot man in Burnsville home and recruited accomplice to hide body

Prosecutors have charged a Burnsville woman with murder after she allegedly shot and killed a man in her father’s home and had an accomplice hide the body in Minneapolis, court records show.

Josephine Ann Powers, 25, faces one count of second-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Michael Robert Riccio, 70, of Minneapolis.

According to a criminal complaint, Powers shot Riccio in the head during an argument on July 9, while her father was on a two-week vacation.

Powers’ father told investigators when he returned from his trip he noticed what appeared to be brown paint throughout the house. On July 16, the father was home on a break from work and saw a man in a hazmat suit cleaning up the “paint” and removing carpet from the basement floor. Two days later, the father awoke to the smell of bleach and ammonia in the home, and when he returned from work, a friend of his daughter told him Powers had shot Riccio while he was on vacation, the complaint states.

When police interviewed Powers, she claimed a man had shot Riccio and another man — who she identified as “Chris” — moved the body to his home in Minneapolis. Powers provided the address of Christopher Michael Hawkins, 48, and described the container on the property in which the body was kept.

Police served a search warrant on Hawkins’ home on July 19 and found human remains in a container in a shed. The remains were positively identified as Riccio’s.

Hawkins told police that Powers and another person recruited him to move “a package” from the home in Burnsville in exchange for a truck, according to the complaint. He recalled seeing blood throughout the basement and saw what appeared to be a body wrapped in garbage bags and rugs; he wrapped the body in a tarp, loaded it into a pickup truck and helped clean up the blood.

Powers allegedly told Hawkins she shot Riccio because he “was f—ing with her and she could not take it anymore.” Another witness — the person whom Powers initially said shot Riccio — told police he saw Powers shoot Riccio after the two had gotten into an argument.

Powers was arrested on Monday and remains in custody at the Dakota County Jail. She appeared in court on Wednesday, and a judge set her bail at $750,000 with conditions or $1 million without conditions. Her next hearing is set for Aug. 1.

Hawkins faces charges of aiding an offender and interference with a dead body or scene of death. He’s in custody in Hennepin County on an unrelated burglary offense but will be transferred to Dakota County once he’s released, according to the Dakota County Attorney’s Office.