MINOT, N.D. (Court TV) — A judge has ordered a change of venue in the case of a North Dakota man charged with killing his roommate in a case that prosecutors must prove without a body.
Shawnee Krall is charged with murder and gross sexual imposition. (Ward County Sheriff’s Office)
Shawnee Lynn Krall is charged with murder in the death of his roommate, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, on Dec. 20, 2020. Charging documents obtained by Court TV allege Krall killed the victim during a sexual encounter during which some form of restraint was used.
Proceedings were abruptly delayed in the middle of jury selection after Krall’s court-appointed attorney expressed concerns that her client would be unable to receive a fair trial due to local media coverage in Ward County.
In other court documents obtained by Court TV, police said that the victim, Alice Queirolo, was reported missing on Dec. 21 after not arriving at work. When police searched her home, her purse, cell phone, vehicle and dog were all there, which indicated to police she “may not have left her residence voluntarily.”
Police immediately began looking into Krall, who rented a room in the victim’s home. When police asked for his help finding the victim, he refused to cooperate.
Quierolo’s body was found days after she was reported missing in the trunk of a vehicle that investigators said Krall had stored on an acquaintance’s property. But the victim’s body will not be admissible at Krall’s trial.
The North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that when police found the victim’s body, they had failed to get a search warrant to open the trunk. Requests to access the car had been rejected before they opened it, according to the decision handed down by the Court. Thus, the prosecution will have the task of proving a murder case without the victim’s body.
Alice Queirolo was reported missing on Dec. 21, 2020. (Minot Police Department)
The years since the murder have brought several challenges for Krall, who has gone through nine attorneys throughout his case. Most recently, an attorney withdrew from the case just before the scheduled start of the trial in Sept. 2023 after telling the court that the suspect’s family advised him to assault her, KMOT reported. The state alerted Krall’s attorney after becoming aware of a jail call between Krall and his mother that was “sent to defense counsel out of an abundance of caution and concern for counsel’s safety.”
Krall, in response, accused his former attorney of failing to provide him adequate representation and filed a complaint with the disciplinary and review board against her, saying that she was slow to file motions on his behalf, the Minot Daily News reported.
Krall was also accused of having weapons in his jail cell in Sept. 2023. Jail staff said they found five homemade weapons in his cell, as well as messages he sent to his mother saying he may get violent with people at the jail. In a probable cause document obtained by Court TV, deputies said the weapons, described as pieces of plastic with screws and nails sticking out of them as well as a sock with bars of soap, bolts and other debris inside, were found on a table inside of Krall’s cell.
Court TV will bring you live gavel-to-gavel coverage as soon as the case gets underway.
