Big Lake Man Ruled Not Guilty by Reason of Mental Illness in Mom’s Killing

(KNSI) — A Big Lake man already convicted of murdering his mother in 2020 has now been found not guilty by reason of mental illness in the second phase of his trial, meaning he’ll remain committed to a state psychiatric facility rather than face prison.

According to the criminal complaint, police were called to Rosalie Johnson’s home on July 23rd, 2020, after her husband, Andrew Jordahl, returned from work and found their son, Eric, in the garage, covered in blood. He told his father, “The devil exists, it’s in me and I ate Mom.”

Court documents say officers interviewed Jordahl, who explained he woke up cold and saw the thermostat read 66.6 degrees, which triggered him to tear the device off the wall. He added he was then “commanded by a nonverbal voice” to kill Johnson, whom he deemed to be not human, adding the being he killed was not his mother, but a “reptiloid deceiver” and “energy vampire.” Eric said he went into his mother’s room, and she told him to go back to bed. He then bit her and began hitting her with his fists and a fan, before retrieving a butcher knife from the kitchen and stabbing her repeatedly. During the interview, he also asked investigators if they were snakes, mentioned a “golden web,” and said he did a service to people by killing Johnson to correct a great evil. He gave delayed, disorganized, and disjointed responses throughout, seeming alert and aware at times and drifting off at others.

Jordahl was charged with second-degree murder before being indicted by a grand jury on first-degree murder charges. In 2021, he was found incompetent to stand trial, and the case stalled, but prosecutors filed a notice of intent to prosecute once Jordahl regained competency. That happened in 2023 and was reaffirmed in 2024, before his attorneys filed notice of intent to assert a defense of not guilty by reason of mental illness. That triggered what’s called a bifurcated trial, or a trial split into two separate phases, each decided independently.

In January, Jordahl waived his right to a jury trial, opting instead for a bench trial where the judge decides both the guilt phase and the mental illness phase. This spring, Judge Karen Schommer found Jordahl guilty on all counts, including first-degree murder.

Schommer heard the second phase on May 20th and 21st, focused only on Jordahl’s state of mind at the time of the killing. Two forensic psychologists testified he was in the grip of active psychosis and schizophrenia that day, including hallucinations and religious delusions that led him to believe his mother was a nonhuman being he was commanded to kill. Prosecutors didn’t call an expert of their own to challenge that testimony.

Schommer ultimately ruled that Jordahl didn’t understand what he was doing, or that it was wrong, when he killed his mother. She found him not guilty by reason of mental illness on all three murder counts, meaning he will remain committed to the Minnesota Security Hospital.

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