Jan. 7—SUPERIOR — A Duluth man was sentenced Monday, Jan. 6, in Douglas County Circuit Court to 12 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision in connection with
a 2023 double stabbing.
Tyler Anthony Lee Hanson, 26, pleaded guilty to felony counts of first-degree reckless injury and aggravated battery, both with use of a dangerous weapon, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery with use of force. An additional count of aggravated battery — intend bodily harm and a charge of party to burglary armed with a dangerous weapon were dismissed. Hanson was ordered to pay a portion of $15,000 in restitution and court costs and have no contact with the victims.
Superior police officers responded to a reported stabbing at approximately 12:52 a.m. May 8, 2023, on the 10 block of North 24th Street. They met a victim outside who had been stabbed at least four times and a victim inside the residence who had been stabbed in the rib area, according to the criminal complaint. Both men were hospitalized.
One victim told police a man wearing rubber gloves and brass knuckles knocked on the door of the residence and asked for pills. The victim reportedly told the man he had the wrong place and called for another man inside the home to come help.
“And then it was just a flurry of fists,” the victim told police.
At some point, a man wearing a mask entered the home and joined the fight. He reportedly pulled a knife and stuck both victims with it.
The neighbor told police officers he heard a commotion at the residence and saw a man flee. The neighbor followed and was able to provide a Minnesota license plate number to police.
The vehicle was registered to Hanson’s mother. Detectives found multiple blood stains in the truck and on clothing left in the truck.
Hanson told a detective by phone that he got scared and started swinging a knife, according to the charging complaint. He turned himself in the next day. He told detectives he and a friend went to the residence to buy pills after someone told him a resident there was a dealer.
Hanson is the
second Duluth man sentenced in connection with the stabbing.
Matthew Henry Stepan, 19, pleaded guilty in Douglas County Circuit Court Dec. 11, 2023, to felony counts of burglary — armed with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit armed robbery with threat of force.
Stepan was sentenced to seven years in prison and eight years of extended supervision, according to online court records. One of the conditions of his sentence was that he pay a portion of the restitution.
A victim identified Stepan as one of the suspects from a Facebook picture. In the picture, Stepan is wearing distinctive white frame eyeglasses that appear identical to glasses that were left behind at the stabbing scene, the charges said.
Stepan turned himself in two days after the stabbing. He had facial injuries that appeared to be from an altercation but declined to talk to police.