The man accused of stabbing a University of Minnesota student to death in 2013 pleaded guilty Friday, according to a Dakota County Attorney press release.
Shavelle Oscar Chavez-Nelson, 33, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the murder of 20-year-old Anarae Schunk. The sentence will run concurrently with the life sentence Chavez-Nelson is already serving for the deadly 2013 shooting of Palagor Jobi.
The guilty plea by Chavez-Nelson, also known as Anthony Nelson, means the case will not go to trial.
His girlfriend, Ashley Conrade, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after she pleaded guilty last February to aiding an offender after the fact in connection with the death of Schunk.
“The negotiated settlement of this case was agreed upon with the support of Anarae’s family who had expressed a desire to negate any additional trauma to family and friends that may have resulted from a trial,” said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom in the release.
Schunk’s murder
Schunk and Chavez-Nelson had dated at one point and met when Chavez-Nelson approached her at a bus stop and asked her about a chess book she was reading.
At that point, Chavez-Nelson had multiple felony convictions.
Chavez-Nelson and his girlfriend, Ashley Marie Conrade, were with Schunk at Nina’s Bar and Grill in Burnsville when witnesses say he shot and killed Jobi after a fight in the early morning of Sept. 22, 2013.
Schunk met up with Chavez-Nelson and Conrade the previous day to retrieve money Schunk had loaned him when they were dating. Two days later, a missing person’s report was filed to the Burnsville police department.
After a search, police found Schunk’s body in rural Rice County on Sept. 30, 2013. An autopsy determined her death was caused by multiple sharp force injuries and was ruled a homicide.
After the shooting, Conrade told police that the three went back to Conrade’s townhome.
When police searched the home two days later, they found a plastic tub containing bloody plastic bags as well as a bloody comforter, according to a Dakota County criminal complaint.
Police also found clothing that appeared to have been cut from someone. A jacket that authorities believe belonged to Schunk was found with multiple cuts that appeared to be from stab wounds.
Police also found a knife on the roof of Conrade’s apartment building with blood spots near the base. The sample was not suitable for DNA testing, according to the complaint.
