CLOQUET, Minn. — A Cloquet man is officially charged with three counts of second degree intentional murder in the deaths of his girlfriend, her 20-month-old son and unborn baby.
Prosecutors detail the charges against 33-year-old Sheldon James Thompson in a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Carlton County District Court.
The complaint says officers from the Fond Du Lac Police Department responded March 7 after receiving a call from someone who said they had spoken with Thompson. The caller told dispatchers Thompson was acting unusually, and made a statement that he had killed his girlfriend, 27-year-old Jackie Defoe and her 18-month-old son, Kevin.
Prosecutors say squads went to Defoe's home and knocked on the door, but got no response. They obtained a search warrant, returned to the home and found Defoe dead in a closet with deep lacerations on her body. In another room they found the boy dead with severe bruising around his head.
Investigators learned that Thompson had been in a car with a known woman and contacted her. She told them that she had picked the defendant up at a home in Cloquet, and later dropped him off on the side of a road. Thompson called 911 shortly afterwards and said he wanted to turn himself in, but when officers arrived at the meeting location he wasn't there.
A large-scale search effort, which included helicopters equipped with cameras, soon located Thompson and he was taken into custody. Investigators spoke with a number of witnesses who said the defendant had confessed to the killing of Defoe and her son.
An autopsy revealed that Defoe had suffered multiple stab wounds, and was 13 weeks pregnant at the time of her death. Defoe's son Kevin died of blunt force trauma.
Court records show Thompson has a long history of domestic violence convictions including in 2016, when according to the criminal complaint, he punched, kicked and stomped his ex-wife, breaking her jaw.