Rochester Man Cannot Withdraw Guilty Pleas in Triple Murder Case

Get our free mobile app

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - An Olmsted County judge has denied a request from a man charged with killing his pregnant girlfriend and her young daughter to withdraw his guilty pleas to second-degree murder charges.

The order denying the request by 31-year-old Renard Carter was filed in Olmsted County Court today. In issuing the order, the judge in the case also scheduled a sentencing hearing for Carter on the afternoon of December 9th.

The ruling followed a recent psychological exam that determined Carter was competent when he pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder in August. The charges stemmed from the 2020 murders of 23-year-old Kiona Foote, her unborn child, and her two-year-old daughter, Miyona Miller.

Foote and her child were found strangled to death in their Northeast Rochester apartment on September 13th of last year after Rochester police are asked to conduct a welfare check. Carter was apprehended in South Carolina later on the same day after he was shot and wounded by a police officer when he emerged from an apartment holding but turned out to be a BB gun.

He is currently being held in the Olmsted County jail on $5 million bail.