New York -- Jonathan Samuel, chief suspect in the murder of Ugandan Zewu Nantambi in North St. Paul, Minnesota, will face an omnibus hearing on Friday, January 11, at the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center, court officers told The Monitor.

Samuel, a Nigerian citizen in the United States on a long-expired visa, was found at the scene of the murder on December 23, 2001, along with Sonny Lwetutte of Uganda. According to the criminal complaint against Samuel, obtained by The Monitor, Lwetutte was holding a cordless phone in his left hand and a black revolver in his right hand when police arrived on the scene. He was shouting, “That man shot my sister, he’s getting away.”

Lwetutte is not really Nantambi’s brother, he told investigators later, but she was like a sister to him. According to Lwetutte, Samuel and Nantambi had been dating, but they had been separated for two to three months.

On the day of Nantambi’s death, Lwetutte heard her say to Samuel something like, “I am done with you.” He then heard a continued argument, culminating in two gunshots. Samuel then confronted Lwetutte at the bedroom door and allegedly said, “she is dead and I am going to kill you, too.”

Lwetutte managed to wrest control of the gun from Samuel, he said, and then he picked up the telephone to dial 911.

When officers arrived on the scene, they ordered Lwetutte to drop his gun, and he did. Officer Larsen then approached Samuel, who said, “We were fighting over the gun and it went off.” He then placed his hands behind his back and said, “You might as well just take me.” Officers took Samuel into custody.

Upon entering the apartment, investigators found Nantambi’s three-year-old son screaming, “Mommy.” The officers then found Nantambi already dead, with a bullet wound located at the right eye socket.

Later that night, an investigator interrogated Samuel. He said the gun was not his but Lwetutte’s, and that the gun went off twice, accidentally, when the two men struggled for control. However, the investigator observed a fresh injury on the right index finger on his knucle, consistent, with Lwetutte’s claim of having twisted the gun from Samuel’s grasp.

The gun found at the scene was unlikely to have gone off accidentally. It was a 22-caliber “western” style revolver, meaning the trigger hammer has to be manually pulled back in order for the gun to fire. Each trigger release allows for only one shot.

Investigators searched a vehicle registered to Samuel on the day after the murder. In it they found a hole, gunpowder burns, and a lead bullet fragment consistent with a 22-caliber slug.

Samuel will be charged with murder in the second degree. At the omnibus hearing, he will be able to plead guilty or not guilty. If he pleads the latter, a trial date will be selected.

Public defender Michael Chisum will defend Samuel. The maximum penalty for second-degree murder in Minnesota is 40 years, but in reality it would likely be less than that, according to Peter Lindstrom, county attorney executive assistant.

North St. Paul police chief Dwight Stewart told The Monitor the Ugandan community in his town of 12,000 is quite small. “I haven’t met any of these folks before,” he said. This is the first murder in North St. Paul since 1991.