Appeals Court Rules Stearns County Man Should Get New Sentence

ST. PAUL -- A former Fairhaven Township man will be re-sentenced after the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled his sentence for trying to kill his wife was improperly calculated.

52-year-old Jerry Thompson was convicted of burglary, assault, kidnapping and attempted first-degree murder.

He was accused of going to his estranged wife's home in 2008, firing a gunshot at her, kidnapping her at gunpoint and leading police on a slow-speed chase before crashing the car with a sheriff's deputy.

The Appeals court ruled the lower court erred in calculating Thompson's criminal history score. It's the formula courts use to calculate sentences for criminals. The court said the point total used was higher than it should be.

The case now goes back to Stearns County for a new sentence.