© Dakota County Jail
Timothy Steele
Timothy Steele
Timothy Robert Steele, 35, also told investigators that he was angry with Agnes Wagner-Steele because she had "caused a hole in one of [his] jackets."
Steele, pictured above, was charged today with second-degree murder in connection with the October 15 slaying at a residence in Farmington, a city outside Minneapolis.
Responding to an emergency call placed by Steele's mother (who is the victim's daughter), cops found Steele sitting on a living room couch late Friday evening. Asked what was going on, a "calm and collected" Steele reportedly told cops, "I killed my grandmother."
After being read his rights, Steele told officers he was "annoyed by the victim blowing her nose at dinner." As detailed in a probable cause statement, Steele then spoke of becoming fixated on the feeling of mucus in his mouth and could smell mucus because the victim had blown her nose at dinner."
Steele, who claimed to have heard voices in his head, told police that he "believed that if he killed the victim the feeling and smell of mucus that he was experiencing would go away." Steele confessed to striking his grandmother in the head with a hammer "seven to eight times."
Investigators found Wagner-Steele dead in an upstairs bedroom. "Police observed injuries on the right side of the victim's head," the court filing notes.Steele, who is locked up on $750,000 bail, faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the octogenarian's murder. (3 pages)
Comment: Certainly if someone gets so intoxicated they engage in sexual assault and behave like a rabid dog, they shouldn't be allowed to resume duties as a police officer. In the USA, with today's laws it seems cops like this are the rule, rather than the exception.