A 44-year-old rural Pinewood man was charged Monday in Beltrami County District Court with serious felony second-degree murder.
Randy Joseph Grubich, originally from the Twin Cities, was charged in the May 23 stabbing death of Colin Kirkpatrick of the city of Pinewood.
Grubich's next court appearance before Judge Shari Schluchter is scheduled for June 8. Meanwhile, he is in custody in the Beltrami County Jail on $500,000 bail.
According to the criminal complaint, the Beltrami County Sheriff's Office received a call at 11:30 a.m. May 26 from the Rev. Bob Kelly, who had recently returned to his home in Buzzle Township north of Pinewood and discovered the body of Kirkpatrick on the property. The body was found lying on the ground with the head up against the south wall of a cabin rented by Grubich.
Kelly located Grubich a few hundred yards away from the cabin. Deputies went with Kelly and found Grubich.
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Kelly reported that he had seen Grubich at about 9 a.m. May 26 when the accused walked past the Kellys' house. After he found the body, Kelly located Grubich, whom he had picked up at Beltrami County Jail May 22 and dropped off at Kirkpatrick's residence. Grubich was in jail after being arrested and charged with felony terroristic threats in relation to incidents May 20.
The complaint states that Grubich wouldn't speak on May 26, but on May 27, Grubich described to sheriff's deputies the sequence of events following his return to his cabin from jail. He told the deputies Kirkpatrick had driven him to Bemidji to shop for groceries and tend to other errands. The complaint states that the two went to Grubich's cabin to drink beer and listen to music. A fight ensued, during which Grubich pulled out a knife and stabbed Kirkpatrick in the face, according to the complaint.
The complaint continues that Grubich said he took some clean clothes from his cabin and stashed the clothes he had been wearing, along with the knife, by a tree near a pond. Deputies found the clothes wedged in a tree and a 6-inch-blade hunting knife nearby.
Kirkpatrick's body was taken to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner for an autopsy, which showed he had been stabbed twice in the face and four times in the lower left leg. It also showed what appeared to be a defensive injury, a cut on his left hand. The stab wound to the face broke his teeth and severed his carotid artery. The cause of death was determined to be loss of blood from the stab wounds, and the manner of death was determined to be homicide.
