Victim of Feb. aggravated assault in Minneapolis dies, suspect in custody

A woman who was stabbed last month in a Minneapolis apartment has died from her injuries, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner confirmed on Wednesday.

Pauline Hollman, 58, of Minneapolis, died on March 10 from complications of sharp force injuries, the medical examiner said in a news release. The man who was accused of stabbing her has been in custody, and upon Hollman's death, his charges were upgraded from aggravated assault to murder.

According to a news release from the Minneapolis Police Department, officers responded to a report of a stabbing on Feb. 15 on the 600 block of South Ninth Street. The caller said someone had broken into his apartment and stabbed his girlfriend.

When officers arrived, they spoke to a man, later identified as Michael Phillip Cloutier, who opened the security door for officers. Cloutier denied calling 911.

Officers had to push past Cloutier to get to where the stabbing had been reported. They got to a locked apartment, and Cloutier opened the door with a key, according to the news release.

When officers went into the apartment, they saw blood everywhere and found a woman, identified as Hollman, lying on an air mattress with a pool of blood near her head.

She was taken to the hospital to be treated for a stab wound to the neck. According to the release, emergency personnel noted that most of the blood found was either dried or congealed, which led them to believe she had been left untreated for several hours.

When officers found Hollman in the apartment, Cloutier "became upset and combative." He was arrested, and officers noticed he had blood on his clothes. In a post-Miranda interview with detectives, Cloutier admitted to stabbing Hollman, the release stated.

Cloutier was booked on two counts of first-degree assault. Upon Hollman's death, homicide detectives revised charge papers to void the assault charges and replace them with homicide.

This is Minneapolis's eighth homicide of 2020.