A Minnesota woman who was once sentenced to life in prison for murder, then had her conviction overturned, has now received a new sentence of 20 years in prison.
Elsa Segura posed as a real estate agent in 2019 to lure 28-year-old Monique Baugh to what was supposed to be a home showing, but it was a ruse. Segura was working with her then-boyfriend and two additional men to accomplish the murder; it was her job to set up the fake open house.
Once Baugh arrived the men kidnapped, tortured, and murdered Baugh.
Seguar was convicted for aiding and abetting premeditated murder, for kidnapping, and for first-degree murder. But this January the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned her conviction on the grounds that the prosecution did not have enough evidence and the judge in her trial gave incorrect instructions to the jury.
On round two, Segura pleaded guilty to kidnapping in a plea deal that gave her 20 years in prison. She was supposed to have a second trial this October, but the plea deal makes that unnecessary.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said she understood that it was hard for Baugh’s family to have this case reopened. She said one of the reasons her office agreed to the plea deal was to spare the family from having to go through another trial while at the same time getting a tough enough sentence for Segura that justice would be served.
In another statement, Moriarty said Segura “played a significant role” in Monique Baugh’s murder, and that the 20-year sentence was appropriate accountability for what she did.
The three other men alleged to have killed Baugh are also trying to get better deals in court. The state supreme court also overturned the conviction of one of them, Lyndon Wiggins, after finding in March that the trial judge in that case also gave the jury faulty instructions.
But the other two men were out of luck. The Minnesota Supreme Court heard their appeals, but upheld their sentences of life in prison without parole.
Meanwhile, the high court heard appeals from the other two men convicted in the case, but upheld their sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Wiggins is scheduled to next appear in court on Thursday.
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota judge sentenced a woman to 20 years in prison Tuesday for her alleged role in the 2019 New Year’s Eve killing of a Minneapolis real estate agent.
Elsa Segura pleaded guilty to kidnapping to commit great bodily harm or terrorize as part of an agreement with prosecutors in the case of the death of Monique Baugh, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.
Segura had been found guilty of murder and other counts in 2021, but the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned the conviction this year, citing faulty jury instructions. The plea deal means Segura will avoid a second trial.
A public defender for Segura did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday evening.
Prosecutors say Segura lured Baugh to a phony home showing in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove, where she was kidnapped. Baugh was found, fatally shot, in a Minneapolis alley in the early hours of 2020.
Prosecutors said she was killed in a complicated revenge scheme against Baugh’s boyfriend, Jon Mitchell-Momoh, a recording artist who had a falling out with former business associate Lyndon Akeem Wiggins, who was also a drug dealer and Segura’s romantic partner.
Mitchell-Momoh, whom Wiggins allegedly considered a snitch, was also shot in front of the couple’s children, then ages 1 and 3. He survived.
The state Supreme Court also tossed Wiggins’ conviction this year, similarly citing faulty jury instructions. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that he is being held in the county jail and faces retrial.
The high court has affirmed the convictions of two other defendants who were accused of kidnapping Baugh. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill sentenced all four to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
