Judge adds years to already long sentence for Twin Cities man who killed cousin with 19 stab wounds

A Minneapolis man has received a sentence well above state guidelines for fatally stabbing his cousin 19 times and leaving the body in an SUV in Crystal.

Larondo C. Willis, 38, was sentenced to nearly 40 years on Monday in Hennepin County District Court after a jury found him guilty last month of second-degree intentional murder in connection with the killing on March 20, 2024, of Eddie D. Winters, 40, of Minneapolis.

The 39-year sentence from Judge Hilary Caligiuri was an upward departure from the presumptive 32-year sentence under state sentencing guidelines.

With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Willis is expected to serve roughly 25¾ years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.

An autopsy by the Medical Examiner’s Office counted nine stab wounds to Winters’ neck, four to his chest, five to his back and one to his mid-torso. He also had numerous cuts to his hands consistent with defensive wounds.

The criminal complaint said Willis and other family members were upset with Winters for fleeing the scene in April 2022 when another cousin was killed “to save himself instead of helping him.”

At the time of the stabbing, Willis was on supervised release after serving slightly less than eight years in prison for a rape in Hennepin County in 2015.

According to the murder complaint:

Officers were dispatched about 7:25 a.m. to the 3200 block of Hampshire Avenue N. to check on an SUV that had been there for hours with the engine running. The officers saw a bloodied and wounded Winters dead in the vehicle.

Winters’ son told police that he drove his father to a barbershop that evening. A man later entered whom Winters referred to as his cousin. The teen said the three of them left the barbershop together. The son was dropped off at home, and Winters and the man drove off.

Willis was arrested on March 21, 2024, on an unrelated assault charge. Police seized his phone and determined from its data that he was near the crime scene around the time that Winters’ SUV was first spotted there. Police also collected from Willis a folding knife and bloodied shorts.