Kansas man stabbed 17-year-old Fleet farm employee sentenced to 7 years

CARVER, Minn. (FOX 9) - A Kansas man charged in the stabbing of a 17-year-old employee at a Fleet Farm in Carver, Minnesota, pleaded guilty and received a seven-year prison sentence on Tuesday. 

Gerald Dwayne Hudson, 31, was charged with first-degree assault causing great bodily harm and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for his alleged role in the November 2024 stabbing. 

According to court records, Hudson entered a guilty plea on Tuesday to first-degree assault, in exchange for the second charge being dropped. A Carver County judge handed down an 84-month sentence, seven years, for the crime, with credit for 72 days served. 

Attack at Fleet Farm

The backstory:

On Nov. 24, 2024, the Carver County Sheriff’s Office responded to a reported stabbing at Fleet Farm.

The charging documents say the incident was captured on surveillance video, and shows a man heading into the store just after 2 p.m. and walking past the employee in an aisle, before looking both ways and walking back to her. 

While the employee’s back was turned to him, charges allege Hudson made a "striking movement" toward her neck, and he sprinted out to the parking lot before driving away.  

The girl grabbed the back of her neck, and a customer reported hearing her scream loudly "he just stabbed me," according to the complaint.

Law enforcement said the teenager sustained a "2-3 inch long laceration" to the back of her neck, and the injury was consistent with being stabbed by a "sharp elongated object." 

The girl told authorities she didn’t know who the man was before being transported to the hospital in critical but stable condition, according to court records. 

In Hudson's words

What they're saying:

Law enforcement located Hudson's vehicle in Chanhassen and conducted a high-risk traffic stop, and he was ultimately taken into custody, according to the sheriff's office.

When talking about the incident, Hudson allegedly told authorities he asked the girl where something was in the store and "maybe she said something that didn’t sound right to me" and he picked up a "thing" and allegedly hit the girl with it. 

"There wasn't any kind of deadly weapon that was involved like a gun, a knife, or a bat or anything like that, there was just like a quick brief conversation, and I just like, I just well hit her with a plastic thing," Hudson allegedly said while in jail, according to the complaint. 

Law enforcement said a weapon has not yet been recovered. 

Hudson will serve his sentence at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud, according to court records.