Ty Hoffman, the man accused in the shooting death of Kelly Phillips, entered a guilty plea on Friday afternoon, according to the Ramsey County Attorneys Office.
Hoffman is accused of shooting Phillips at an Arden Hills gas station on Aug. 11, 2014. The then led police on a manhunt throughout the Twin Cities for one month that included the robbery of a bank and then attempted money laundering at a south metro casino.
Phillips and Hoffman were in a relationship years prior to the murder. Hoffman worked as a manager at Lush Food Bar which Phillips owned. Family, friends, and the LGBT community met to remember Phillips, an LGBT community leader, in mid-August.
“We are pleased that the defendant pled guilty as charged today to intentional second degree murder. This plea spares the victim’s family and everyone who loved Kelly Phillips the burden and uncertainty of a trial,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a statement. “We also have every confidence that he will be held accountable for the additional crimes associated with the bank robbery in Blaine, MN. I want to thank the law enforcement community, specifically the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the prosecutors from my office for their diligence in achieving today’s result.”
Choi’s office also released these details of Hoffman’s run from authorities:
During the course of their investigation, law enforcement learned Hoffman had acquired an olive green painted .45 caliber Glock along with shooting targets. A search warrant of the Minneapolis condominium where the defendant was staying turned up an olive green .45 caliber Glock semiautomatic ammo magazine. Video surveillance from Blaine on the day of the murder shows a man fitting Hoffman’s description walking away from the location where authorities recovered the stolen BMW.
Approximately three weeks after the murder, the defendant was identified as the individual who robbed a Blaine TCF bank using an olive green handgun, similar to the one used in the murder on August 11. Over the course of the next few days, citizen reports and law enforcement efforts tracked the defendant’s movements to the Mall of America as well as Mystic Lake Casino in Shakopee were he attempted to use the (now) dyed red money he acquired during the bank heist. Shakopee police arrested Hoffman on September 11, 2014 as he approached an Arby’s restaurant. He had burn and red marks on his body consistent with the impact of a red dye pack explosion in the backpack he carried out of the bank.