A 46-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing a man in St. Paul’s North End on Monday, the same day the victim was released from jail, was charged on Friday.
In Ramsey County District Court, Dwight David Ford of St. Paul is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 41-year-old Christopher Shawndale Pryor of Minneapolis in an apartment complex in the 100 block of Winnipeg Avenue.
Ford, who is being held at the Ramsey County Jail, is expected to appear in court on the charge on Monday.
Pryor was discovered flat on his back, bleeding from numerous knife wounds to his abdomen, when cops arrived at the residence on a stabbing complaint about 5:30 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the spot by medics.
According to the criminal complaint, Pryor’s sister, A.D.T., was present at the scene and informed investigators that her brother had just gotten out of jail that day. He had contacted her and requested her to pick him up at his flat, but he was not there when she arrived.
She said detectives she contacted him from Born’s Bar many times and that when he answered the phone, she heard him arguing with a man about money and a lady screaming in the background.
Pryor’s sister claimed she rushed to the scene after hearing from a woman exiting the building that two guys were arguing and one had been stabbed.
Homicide investigators met with a witness mentioned on the apartment’s lease. According to the criminal complaint, he said that Pryor, another male, subsequently identified as Ford, and two women had been there for three to four hours and were consuming crack cocaine.
Pryor, a lady, and Ford got into an argument about money at some point. According to the witness, he then exited the flat about the time the fight started. The two women left the apartment a short time later.
Pryor and Ford were physically fighting in the apartment, according to one of the ladies. When asked about Pryor, the witness told detectives that Ford exited the apartment and “calmly stated him he was upstairs,” according to the complaint.
The witness learned Pryor had been stabbed when he went upstairs to his flat.
Shortly before the attack, the witness saw Ford carrying a black six-inch folding knife, according to the witness.
Ford’s mobile phone was discovered at the scene of the stabbing, and security video showed him conversing on his phone outside the apartment building about five hours before the assault.
Officers were called to an apartment in the 800 block of Rice Street on Thursday for a disturbance. Ford, her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, appeared at her apartment door, according to the 911 caller. He was wanted for murder and had been engaged in a stabbing on Winnipeg Avenue, she said dispatchers.
Officers apprehended Ford south of Sycamore and Rice streets and arrested him without incident.
According to the complaint, Ford admitted to stabbing Pryor and acknowledged that C.P. is his lover and works as a prostitute in an interview with authorities. Ford said that he and his girlfriend smoked crack all day at their Winnipeg Avenue apartment, and that they planned a “trap” with Pryor in which C.P. promised to perform sexual activities on him in exchange for money and crack.
According to Ford, after the “trick,” Pryor informed them that he was short $120 and accused C.P. of taking the money. According to the lawsuit, Ford and his girlfriend got into an altercation and his girlfriend “began to seem afraid.” Ford said he took a knife from the kitchen and got into a physical struggle with Pryor in the restroom. According to the complaint, he indicated he stabbed Pryor two to three times.
Ford is now registered with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension as a non-compliant predatory offender. Kidnapping, terroristic threats, first-degree criminal sexual conduct with injury/force, third-degree criminal sexual conduct, second-degree aggravated robbery, and escape from detention are among his criminal offenses.
Pryor has ten felony convictions dating back to 2008, all for narcotics, theft, or burglary, according to court records. After being sentenced to 29 months in jail for a burglary conviction in Dakota County in 2020, he was freed on Monday and placed on supervised probation.
