Man Accused of Punching a Trooper, Setting Off Day-Long Manhunt Pleads Guilty

(KNSI) – The man accused of breaking the jaw of a Minnesota state trooper and running from police, setting off a day-long manhunt near St. John’s University, has pleaded guilty.

29-year-old Devan Dajon Wilson pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary and third-degree assault after an incident stemming from a traffic stop in November. Other charges of fleeing police, DWI, threats of violence, and second degree aggravated robbery were dropped as part of the plea deal.

Wilson’s sentencing date has not been set.

November 19th, a state trooper saw a vehicle on the side of the road on Interstate 94 near Freeport. The criminal complaint says the trooper saw an open bottle of vodka in the car’s back passenger side and two smaller bottles on the front passenger seat. After the trooper conducted field sobriety tests, the criminal complaint says he told Wilson he was under arrest for DWI, and that’s when Wilson is accused of punching the trooper roundhouse style on the left side of the trooper’s face, breaking his jaw and sending the trooper backward into the ditch. Police said that Wilson got back into his car and sped away.

Just before 8:00, the Albany Police Chief saw Wilson’s car near a mobile home area. The chief says he and several other officers followed Wilson onto 94 and tried to pull him over, but they say Wilson would not stop. Police used stop sticks to puncture the tires. As the car slowed down, the Belgrade Police Chief attempted to perform a pursuit intervention technique known as a PIT maneuver but backed off when he said he saw Wilson reach out the driver’s side window with a black object in his hand, which officers believed may have been a gun, according to the criminal complaint.

After Wilson’s car stopped, police say he jumped out and ran into the ditch on the south side of the freeway, dropping an object and then picked it up and kept running. As officers closed in, they say Wilson stopped by a tree and took a “shooting stance” toward the officers and then continued running into the woods at St. John’s, causing the campus of St. John’s University to lockdown.

Police say they got a call about a robbery just before 11:00 at the St. John’s University Prep School dorms on Water Tower Road in Collegeville. A 23-year-old student said he was sleeping when a man matching Wilson’s description came into his room, told him to put his hands over his heart and not move. The student says the man threatened to kill him if he didn’t comply. The student says Wilson stole his clothing, shoes, glasses, phone, and car keys and changed clothes in front of him, leaving his original clothing behind and left.

At around 6:30, Stearns County Sheriff’s Deputies found Wilson hiding underneath a blanket under some stairs near the building where the robbery took place.

He was arrested at gunpoint and had a black phone in his hands. A black wrench was also found. Wilson did not have a gun. He was taken to St. Cloud Hospital for treatment before being booked into the Stearns County jail.

Wilson was a wanted fugitive by the Department of Corrections.