OLIVIA -- A grand jury has indicted Dirk Lionel Goelz, 44, of Franklin on two counts of first-degree murder and a third count of second-degree murder.
Goelz is charged in the Jan. 30 shooting death of his girlfriend, Kerri Marie Robinson, 36, at their home north of Franklin in Renville County.
The grand jury indictment was unsealed Friday in District Court in Olivia as Goelz appeared for a previously scheduled bail hearing.
The second-degree murder charge is identical to the one originally filed by the Renville County Attorney's Office against Goelz after he was taken into custody. A grand jury indictment is required to charge a defendant with first-degree murder. The Renville County attorney had indicated shortly after Goelz was taken into custody that he was looking into convening a grand jury.
Goelz was arrested in the early evening of Jan. 30 after shooting himself in the shoulder outside the Renville County Sheriff's Office in Olivia. An acquaintance had brought Goelz there so that he could turn himself in. The wound was not life-threatening.
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The first-degree murder charges allege that Goelz acted with premeditation in shooting Robinson to death, and that there was a history of domestic abuse by Goelz against Robinson.
Robinson died after being struck by three bullets in their home, allegedly after attempting to flee from Goelz, according to information presented to the court on Friday.
Family members of Robinson were present in court as Goelz appeared to hear the grand jury indictment on Friday. The court set conditional bail at $2 million. Goelz remains in custody, according to Renville County Attorney David Torgelson.
A 22-member grand jury sealed its indictment against Goelz on Thursday, but the charges remained secret until his appearance in court on Friday.
Torgelson said a 22-member grand jury had been convened in the county on Tuesday. Attorney Matt Frank with the Minnesota Attorney General's office called 20 witnesses. They presented 2½ days of testimony to the grand jury before it reached its indictment.
It takes a vote by a minimum of 12 jurists to bring an indictment. The vote on each count of the indictment is kept secret, Torgelson said.
The indictment against Goelz includes a statement of the three criminal charges, and a listing of witnesses who testified before the grand jury. Unlike a criminal complaint, it does not include a probable cause narrative outlining what authorities believe occurred.
The original complaint against Goelz stated that the defendant had told his brother, Ronnie Goelz, that he had killed Robinson. Ronnie Goelz and others went to search Dirk Goelz's rural home, where they found blood in the basement and called authorities, the complaint said. One man interviewed by officers after the shooting said that Robinson had told him that Dirk Goelz had threatened to kill her, according to the complaint.
