Search underway for man accused of killing pregnant wife while on parole for murder

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A search is underway for a Minnesota man who was recently paroled for murder after he was charged with killing his pregnant wife and linked to another shooting.

Mychel Stowers, 36, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the Oct. 19 shooting that killed 35-year-old Damara Alexis Kirkland, who was about two months pregnant.

Officers responding to reports of gunfire found Kirkland’s body crumpled on the floor. There were ultrasound photos in the apartment and a letter addressed to Stowers in the mailbox, according to the statement of probable cause filed Thursday.

Stowers had been paroled from prison in March on a second-degree murder charge in the 2008 shooting death of a St. Paul man. He was on work release and living at a halfway house, but he had been granted a pass to visit a woman described in the probable cause statement as his ex-wife on the day of the shooting.

Stowers filed for divorce in June, although it doesn’t appear it had been finalized, other court records show.

The owner of the apartment said Kirkland’s estranged husband was living with her, which wasn’t allowed because he wasn’t on the lease. The owner said she was being evicted, the statement said.

Minutes after Kirkland’s shooting was reported, officers responded to a nearby carjacking and found a 36-year-old man on the ground, wounded. The man said he left keys in the ignition of his car with the engine running while he got out to throw trash into the garbage.

He said a man matching Stowers’ description then approached and shot him, with the bullet breaking his femur. The gunman also fired at someone who was with the victim, but missed.

The shooter ran off but then returned and stole the vehicle, the statement said. A preliminary analysis shows the gun used in the carjacking was the same one used in Kirkland’s shooting.

Later that day, an employee with the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office received a call from Stowers. Stowers told the employee that he had just shot someone and wanted to turn himself in, the statement said.

But he hasn’t done so, and the stolen vehicle was recovered Thursday in a parking lot, the statement said.