Man charged with murder in death of girlfriend at downtown St. Paul apartment

The boyfriend of a woman who was found dead Friday morning in her downtown St. Paul apartment is now accused of murdering her.

Court records show Kelvin Maurice Perry, 54, is charged with one count of second-degree murder in connection with the death of 39-year-old Shaqita Thomas.

According to a criminal complaint, Thomas’ body was discovered Friday morning after her husband requested a welfare check because he hadn’t heard from her in a couple of days. Thomas and her husband were separated but still married.

A friend of the victim told police Thomas mentioned on a FaceTime call that she had stayed with her husband overnight in the emergency room earlier that week because of her son’s asthma. Thomas also said Perry was “mad” at her and accused her of sleeping with her husband.

Thomas’ husband dropped her off at her building, Press House Apartments on Cedar Street, on Friday morning. Thomas told her husband to leave to avoid an altercation with her boyfriend, Perry, who had her key fob to get in her apartment.

Surveillance footage from the apartment building shows Perry went into the apartment with Thomas at 10:10 a.m. on Friday, and he left the room about two and a half hours later. Key fob data showed the apartment was not accessed between the time Perry left and when medics were let in for a welfare check.

Thomas was found “obviously deceased,” the complaint states. She had suffered several cuts on her upper body, there were signs of trauma on her head and her artificial fingernails were bent backward “as if she had been scratching at something during a struggle.”

A woman who knew Perry because he had resided at one of her sober homes and dated another woman she knew told investigators that Perry was “dangerous, violent, and no good” for Thomas. The woman who had dated Perry in the past also noted his violent and jealous tendencies; she also heard from Perry’s brother that Perry said he had “choked [Thomas] out.”

Officials say Perry is currently in the hospital because a Green Line light rail train struck him after he stepped in front of it Friday morning. Just minutes before that incident, he had called an old friend and told her, “Something is going on. My girlfriend is gone — she is dead.”

Prosecutors say Perry has a “significant” arrest history in Chicago, where he is from.