Man charged in fatal St. Paul stabbings claims TV told him to ‘take your opportunity’

Murder charges have been filed against a man accused of stabbing two men to death Thursday inside a sober house in St. Paul.

Court records show 32-year-old Joseph Francis Sandoval II is charged with two counts of second-degree intentional murder.

According to a criminal complaint, St. Paul police officers were called to a home on the 1100 block of Lawson Avenue East around 4:30 p.m. after a man ran out of the house screaming that a person had killed someone inside.

Officers responding to the scene saw Sandoval leaving the house and walking toward the alley. He had blood on his clothes and cuts on his face and hands, the complaint states. Police noted Sandoval appeared to be intoxicated, and he told them he had taken fentanyl, despite having just been moved to a sober house.

Sandoval said “two big guys” who he couldn’t describe caused the cuts on his body. He added that someone had tried to kill him and “got those other guys too.” He also said that when he sat down on the couch at the sober house, he started “hearing noises.”

“The TV kept saying take your opportunity, so I took my opportunity,” Sandoval told police. 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.”

Two men, ages 40 and 56, were found dead inside the home, both laying in pools of blood with multiple cuts and stab wounds, according to the complaint. The 40-year-old was found in the basement and the other was found upstairs.

Police did not find anyone else inside the home, and officers recovered a bloody knife and hammer at the scene.

The owner of the sober house told police the victim found in the basement was a handyman who was doing work inside the home and the man found upstairs was a resident. Their deaths mark the 30th and 31st homicides in St. Paul this year, according to police data.

On Monday, Oct. 24, police identified the two men as 40-year-old Jason T. Murphy and 56-year-old Jon R. Wentz, both of St. Paul.

The man who had run screaming outside was a resident at the sober house and told police he had tried to get in the front door but Sandoval had blocked the entrance, saying it was “too messy,” the complaint states. The witness said he went around to a side door and saw blood in the kitchen and down the stairs to the basement, where he found one of the victims.

The witness told investigators that when he tried to leave, Sandoval “told him he could not leave as he would need his help disposing of some things.” The witness claimed Sandoval then put him in a chokehold, but he was able to get loose and run to the neighbor’s house.

When Sandoval was taken to the hospital for evaluation, he allegedly requested to have his legs shackled to the bed and to be placed in handcuffs, “Because I don’t know what I’ll do,” the complaint states.

Sandoval has three pending criminal cases in Hennepin County on charges of theft, burglary and multiple counts of assault.

Court records show he was found to be incompetent in those cases and was conditionally released on June 1, 2021. He was civilly committed in July 2021.

A judge acknowledged Sandoval “has a lengthy history of violence, substance abuse, and an inability to care for his daily needs” and he “engages in grossly disturbed behavior or experiences faulty perceptions … and poses a substantial likelihood of causing physical harm.”

Sandoval remains in custody at the Ramsey County Jail on $2 million bail. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Monday.