A 26-year-old man is charged with 2nd-degree murder for an incident at a Windom, MN, bar a few minutes before midnight on Tuesday, New Year’s Eve.
The alleged perpetrator is listed in court records as “No Name Given Happy” and is billed out of San Diego, California. Some court documents erroneously list his first name as Happy. An a/k/a of “George Samuel” also appears in a court document.
Windom police report that the defendant’s name is as it appears on a commercial drivers license issued by the State of California found in the defendant’s semi-truck.
Happy is charged with four felonies for the knife attack that resulted in one fatality and two injuries. The attack occurred at 11:45 pm at the Phat Pheasant Pub in Windom. The police report states that Happy had been ejected from the bar, twice, earlier in the evening.
His Cottonwood County mugshot,
As shown above, the defendant suffered some harm in the melee and spent some time in hospital prior to his first court appearance today. He’s being held on $750,000 bail.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reports that Benjamin Matter has been identified as the deceased.
In court records, no race is listed for the defendant. However, a witness to the fracas is quoted as describing the defendant as “a Hispanic guy.”
As disturbing as all of the above may be, even more disturbing is the implication that the State of California would issue a valid CDL without even taking down the applicant’s name. An undocumented document, if you will.
The presence of the semi in the bar parking lot, with California plates, suggests that Mr. Happy (or Mr. Samuel, or whatever his name may be, if any) has been driving a large vehicle, cross-country, officially anonymous.
Happy’s next court appearance is scheduled for January 14.