2 Men Charged With Murder In Deadly Maplewood Bar Fight
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Two men were charged with murder Thursday after a fight in a Maplewood bar last year left another man dead.
The Ramsey County Attorney charged St. Paul residents Ronald Dean Smaller, 24, and Brandon Jermel Smith, 23, each with two counts of second degree murder in the death of Eduardo Alberto Figueroa on Nov. 11, 2014. Police say Smith is currently incarcerated in St. Cloud, but Smaller is still at large, and there's a warrant out for his arrest.
The incident, which occurred on the victim's 40th birthday just before midnight, was all caught on security cameras at Fred's Tiki Hut on Rice Street. Police say video shows the bar's owner and the victim attempting to escort the two defendants and their female companion out of the bar for being disruptive when the victim. Court documents say Smaller and Smith then knocked Figueroa to the ground, and began hitting him in the head and face. Attorneys say the video also shows Smith hitting another woman -- the victim's daughter -- who was found bleeding and in pain by responding officers.
When paramedics arrived, police say Figueroa was awake and talking, insisting that he would go to the hospital on his own. About an hour later at his St. Paul home, he told his family he felt ill, then collapsed. First responders rushed to the house, but pronounced him dead at the scene.
