A Minnesota woman faces a murder charge after allegedly shooting and killing an elderly man, with an alleged accomplice accused of cleaning up the crime scene and hiding the body. Press Release from the Dakota County Prosecutor’s Office On Wednesday, July 24, several witnesses reported to local police in Burnsville, Minnesota, that Josephine Powers, 25, shot Michael Riccio, 70, in the head.
Powers initially reported the shooting herself on July 18, telling officers that on July 9, while her father was on vacation for two weeks, a man referred to in court documents as “Witness 4” had shot Riccio. Despite Powers’ initial report, authorities allege she and Riccio got into an argument that led to Powers throwing objects at her before ultimately shooting her. In a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, authorities wrote that a witness claimed she “freaked out and ran around the house” before calling for help to clean up the blood.
Days after Riccio’s alleged murder, Powers and an unnamed friend, identified only as “Mike” in court documents, asked a man named Christopher Hawkins to help her “move a package from her home in exchange for a van.”
After Hawkins agreed to help and arrived at Powers’ home in a Minneapolis suburb, he saw blood splattered everywhere and “what he believed to be a body wrapped in trash bags and rugs.” According to court documents, Powers later told him what had happened and admitted to shooting Riccio.
“Powers told a boy “The man was having sex with her and she couldn’t take it anymore so she shot him,” court documents state, referring to Hawkins’ testimony to police. “Powers told her that she shot the guy with a gun that was given to her by a friend who was present when the shooting occurred.”
Hawkins then took the body to a shed in Minneapolis, the attorney’s office alleged. When Powers’ father returned home several days later, he told police he saw what he initially believed was brown paint splattered on the walls and saw a “tall white male in his home wearing a hazmat suit (who was) cleaning up brown paint and removing parts of the carpet from the basement floor,” according to court documents.
On another occasion, Powers’ father detected a “bleach and ammonia odor in the house,” and one of Powers’ friends later told him what had happened while he was away. Police later located Hawkins’ shed and searched it, finding Riccio’s remains inside a gray plastic container, the attorney’s office alleged. An autopsy revealed the cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head, and the cause of death was ruled a homicide.
According to jail records, Hawkins is currently being held in the Hennepin County Jail on another case. Powers has been charged with second-degree intentional homicide and is being held on $1 million bail, the attorney’s office added. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 1.
