A Minneapolis man who is accused of the sexual assault and brutal murder of a grandmother has been arrested, authorities say.
On July 14, the Minneapolis Police Department responded to a church along Oak Park Avenue North and Penn Avenue North, where they found the body of 57-year-old Felisha Smith. Upon arrival, they found the victim partially undressed with injuries on her face and upper body.
According to KSTP.COM, an autopsy report showed she was sexually assaulted and died due to blunt-force trauma to her head. Furthermore, the report showed her hyoid bone was broken, and she had hemorrhaging around her brain, neck, and clavicle. As a result, her death was ruled a homicide.
During the investigation, authorities retrieved CCTV video footage that identified 38-year-old Byron Vinicio Vargas Bautista walking with Smith the evening of the previous day before her demise along Chicago and Lake streets. The pair were seen disembarking a public transit bus at a bus stop in the Minneapolis North axis. Later, the video captured Bautista carrying the victim towards the Spirit of the Lord Church on Penn Avenue, where Smith’s body was found.
The victim was last seen at her residence at The Estates at Chateau, a long-term care facility after she signed herself out. Smith’s children told investigators their mother had suffered a brain injury after a 2014 shooting, and they did not recognize the defendant or how he came to know their mother.
After Bautista’s arrest, he acknowledged being the person in the video footage but told investigators he had no recollection of the events of that day.
He was charged with second-degree murder and faces a 40-year sentence.
"If Minnesota had the death penalty, I wish that he would get that," said Smith’s daughter Bianca Harvey, reported FOX 9.
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