A Minnesota man who shot his roommate in the neck dialed 911 in the aftermath and told dispatchers to ‘bring the coroner’, prosecutors have revealed.
‘He’s dead,’ Cody Vernon Kolstad, 35, said to emergency responders over the phone after gunning down Brian Daniel Stoeckel, 41, just after midnight on May 31, 2022.
Kolstad admitted to killing his friend while high on drugs as he pleaded guilty to one count of intentional murder in the second degree on March 28.
The Rice County Attorney’s Office said Judge Karie M. Anderson sentenced Kolstad to 25 years in jail on Friday. Prosecutors dismissed a first-degree intentional murder charge in exchange for the guilty plea.
Kolstad told the court that on the night of the murder he was high on drugs, and Stoeckel ‘started talking about how one of us had to die by midnight so I shot him’.
The horror unfolded at the duo’s shared home on 2nd Street Southeast in the small town of Morristown, located around 60 miles south of Minneapolis.
Kolstad dialed 911 shortly after pulling the trigger, and told dispatchers simply: ‘He’s dead. Bring the coroner.’
When police arrived at the property, Kolstad told them his friend was ‘badly injured,’ according to court filings obtained by Minnesota news service Bring Me The News.
Cody Vernon Kolstad, 35, has been sentenced to 25 years in jail after admitting to shooting his friend in the neck while high on drugs. He dialed 911 in the aftermath and told dispatchers to ‘bring the coroner’, prosecutors have revealed as the grisly case came to a close on Friday
Law enforcement officials found Stoeckel dead in his bed beside a hole in the wall. They questioned the defendant while inside.
‘Put one in my head and burn me in that building,’ Kolstad told investigators, according to ABC affiliate KSTP. ‘I took a life.’
The bespectacled defendant was pictured in his police booking photo staring vacantly at the camera with his mouth slightly open, while sporting a long straggly beard. The type of drug Kolstad took was not disclosed.
Stoeckel’s sister, Amy Kraemer, broke down in tears in court as she paid tribute to her brother while addressing his murderer.
‘They say the brightest stars burn out the quickest,’ she said. ‘Cody, you took our star. He didn’t burn out; you made that fire go out.’
District Court Judge Karie M. Anderson urged Kolstad to take part in a rehabilitation program while in prison and ‘make better choices’.
‘While you are taking responsibility, you can never make this family whole,’ she said, per the Rice County Attorney’s office.
‘You owe a duty to Brian to do better so that you will never be that same guy that committed murder.
‘The expectation is to make better choices … show Brian you can do better.’
Stoeckel has been remembered as the life of the party by family and friends.
Brian Daniel Stoeckel, 41, has been remembered as the life of the party by family and friends
‘He leaves a huge hole in the hearts of his family and friends who were always entertained by his stories and interesting sense of humor,’ his obituary reads.
‘He truly brought the life to the party. No matter the circumstance, you’d always leave with a story of something funny or crazy Brian did or said when you were with him.’
Rice County Attorney Brian Mortenson described the case as ‘extraordinarily tragic and difficult’ as it came to a conclusion on Friday.
‘While no plea agreement can ever undo the profound loss, today’s sentence holds the defendant accountable for his actions and, we hope, offers some measure of closure to the victim’s family, friends, and the community deeply affected by this crime,’ he told the court.
