A Minneapolis man pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend as he dropped off the couple’s two children for a scheduled visitation, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.
Rodney Velho, 45, pleaded guilty Monday to intentional second-degree murder in the shooting death of 31-year-old Kevin Logan, Jr. Velho will be sentenced on May 10 and is expected to receive a sentence of 20 years in prison. A threats of violence case against Velho was dropped as part of the agreement.
According to the criminal complaint, Velho and his girlfriend were celebrating her birthday on April 19, 2020 at her apartment in Maple Grove. At some point she told Velho that Logan was the father of her children and he would be dropping them off for a scheduled visitation.
Surveillance video showed Logan arriving with two children just before 6 p.m. and a witness in the home said the mother introduced Velho and Logan to each other and they shook hands.
At his hearing Monday, before Hennepin County District Court Judge Martha Holton Dimick, Velho admitted that he later got into an argument with Logan and during the argument, both men said they had guns. Velho thought Logan might retrieve his gun, so he shot him, even though he never saw a gun. Logan fell backward and Velho admitted he moved towards the fallen man, stood over him and purposefully fired two more times while Logan laid on the floor, unarmed.
