Iron Range man found guilty, again, of raping and murdering a Chisholm woman in 1986

VIRGINIA, MINN. – After less than five hours of deliberation Friday, a jury again returned guilty verdicts in the case against Michael Allan Carbo Jr., 56, who was on trial for the rape and murder of Nancy Daugherty, found dead in the bed of her Chisholm home decades ago.

Carbo, who had stood up to receive the verdict, collapsed to his seat with his head in his hands after Judge Robert C. Friday read the verdict. Carbo’s attorney, JD Schmid, rubbed his back. Someone wept in the rows filled with his family members and friends at the St. Louis County Courthouse.

In the front row, Daugherty’s daughter Gina Haggard, alongside her husband and brother Jason Larsen and his fiancee, had tears in her eyes.

Carbo, who will be sentenced March 4, was found guilty on two charges — each carries a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole after 17 years.

This was the second time Carbo stood trial. In 2022, he was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, but the Minnesota Supreme Court sent the case back to district court after ruling it had erred in not letting him use an alternate perpetrator defense to point at Brian Evenson, Daugherty’s former lover-turned-friend.

Evenson had hung out with her the night before she died and was among those who discovered her body.

Daugherty, who worked at a nursing home and had plans to continue her education to become an EMT, was found dead on the afternoon of July 16, 1986. The murder was unsolved for decades until, based on advances in DNA testing, investigators linked Carbo to the crime.

Carbo had never been a suspect, and though many people were questioned over the years, no one else was ever arrested or charged.

After the verdict, in the privacy of a room set aside for her at the St. Louis County Courthouse, Haggard let of a whoo-hoo.

She called the verdict “total vindication” but said she assumes it will be appealed — so it likely isn’t over.

Her husband, Dave Haggard, said this verdict was sweeter than the last.

“It’s better because [the defense] smeared Nancy’s name in the mud and kicked Brian,” he said.

Evenson said by phone from his home in Climax, Minn., that the verdict was a relief. The worst day of his life was when Daugherty died, he said. The second-worst was the cross-examination during this trial.

“Reliving everything, it’s like she just died yesterday, every day since Carbo was arrested,” he said. “It’s been an emotional drain for over 40 years now.”

The jury was handed the case just before noon Friday and was quicker with its turnaround than the previous jury. The trial lasted about two weeks and saw a series of aging witnesses, who sometimes had to refer to old testimonies or nearly 40-year-old transcripts to refresh memories.

During the prosecution’s closing argument, attorney Jon Holets told the jury to “follow the forensic evidence.” Carbo’s DNA was found in and around Daugherty’s body, including under her fingernails, and on a pink washcloth. His fingerprint was found on her toilet seat.

The only other source of DNA at the scene was Daugherty’s.

“The only answer is that Michael Carbo did it,” Holets said.

Defense attorney Bruce Williams filled his closing argument with colorful summaries, dramatizations, and pop culture references dating back further than the murder — among them, “The Odd Couple” and “Cheers.”

Williams kept much of his focus on Evenson’s testimony. He offered a scenario in which a jealous Evenson killed Daugherty after finding her with Carbo, who was then 18.

The defense never denied that Carbo had sex with Daugherty but insisted that didn’t mean he killed her.

“Brian was going to have his vengeance,” Williams suggested. “Brian Evenson was silencing the love of his life.”

Evenson, who spent hours on the witness stand, has emphatically denied killing Daugherty.

“There is enough reasonable doubt to get to Milwaukee and back,” Williams added.

After the verdicts were read, Carbo’s family gathered in a waiting area at the courthouse. His mother, Barb Jenkins, spoke quietly from her wheelchair surrounded by family. She said her son would have never done the killing and had never hurt her or his sisters.

Jenkins said her son’s female friends consider him a protector.

“They’ve wasted five years of his life,” she said.

For Haggard, the story goes on. She has another victim impact statement on the horizon, which wasn’t easy the first time, she said. She said she’s grateful to the prosecution and Chisholm Police Chief Vern Manner, who sat with her in the courtroom during sensitive parts of the trial.

Her husband credited her with how she has handled the decades of uncertainty, followed by two trials.

“My mom did a good job raising me,” Haggard said.