Minnesota man convicted of rape after vanishing during trial dies after jumping off Texas overpass

A Minnesota rape and kidnapping defendant who was convicted in absentia after disappearing as he was about to be cross-examined jumped to his death from a highway overpass near a Texas airport, officials said Friday.

David Powers, 37, of New Auburn, Minn., who was found guilty Tuesday in Washington County District Court in connection with the 2023 assault in Lake Elmo, leapt from a bridge Wednesday night near the San Antonio International Airport, read a report from that city’s Police Department.

Motorists reported to police about a man, later identified as Powers, who had jumped off the Jones Maltberger Road overpass and landed on Hwy. Loop 410, police said.

Witnesses then saw Powers “walking on the highway, trying to get vehicles to stop,” the police report read. “A citizen stopped his vehicle to assist, when [Powers] pulled the citizen out of his vehicle and began assaulting the citizen, attempting to take the citizen’s vehicle.”

Officers arrived and detained Powers and had him taken by emergency medical responders to a nearby hospital, where he died from his injuries, the report continued.

Defense attorney Bruce Rivers said Powers’ death brings “a tragic end to something that didn’t have to happen. ... It turns out he just couldn’t take the heat.”

Jurors convicted Powers of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping and domestic assault by strangulation after he held a woman captive for more than 24 hours in her apartment.

The verdict came with Powers not there to hear the result of the five-day trial in connection with his crimes at the home in the 9500 block of Hudson Boulevard.

Powers had testified on April 18, but when the trial resumed Monday, he failed to return for cross-examination by prosecutor Scott Haldeman.

Rivers told the court he did not know Powers’ whereabouts, and an arrest warrant was issued.

Had he been sentenced, Powers would have faced decades in prison.

On Wednesday, Rivers said, “I’ve been a lawyer for 27 years, and I’ve never had a case where I finished a trial without my client sitting next to me.”

Rivers said Powers “did pretty well” when he testified, and “I thought he was going to hold up on cross-examination.”

In response to Powers’ death, County Attorney Kevin Magnuson said in a statement, “I am currently evaluating what the next steps are in this criminal case. But our focus and sympathy should be with the victim, who suffered through a horrific sexual and physical assault and had the courage to testify against her assailant.”

The statement did not elaborate on what the possible next steps might be.

According to the criminal complaint:

Sheriff’s deputies were called to the apartment just before 9 a.m. May 2, 2023, on a request for a welfare check after the woman failed to report for work.

Deputies arrived and saw the woman screaming for help while frantically trying to open an upper-level window. A man appeared behind her and pulled her back.

The deputies forced their way into the apartment and arrested Powers. The deputies said the woman had significant injuries to her neck, a forearm and hands.

She told them that Powers had been staying with her for a few weeks. After they attended a sporting event the previous evening, she left Powers at her apartment during an argument and stayed with friends in a neighboring city.

When she returned early the next morning, she said, Powers assaulted her for three hours. Throughout the attack, he threatened to kill her and destroyed many of her belongings.

The woman told deputies she tried to escape but that Powers restrained her and kept her from getting to her cellphone or keys.