Man pleads guilty in Minneapolis parking ramp murder

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - A 46-year-old man pleaded guilty to murdering a 31-year-old woman in a downtown Minneapolis parking ramp last summer.

Benjamin Love pleaded guilty to second-degree unintentional murder.

According to the criminal complaint, early in the morning on July 15, Mai Yer Cha was with her friends heading back to their car at Ramp B. When they got in the parking ramp elevator, Love joined them and followed them when they got out on the fourth floor. Then, he attempted to rob the women. During the confrontation, Love held a knife to one of the women's throats. When Cha tried to stop him, Love stabbed her in the heart. She later died from her injuries. 

Love is expected to be sentenced to 24 years in prison, which is more than the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines. He will be serving a longer sentence because before committing the murder he had been convicted of two other violent felony crimes.

Love also pleaded guilty to two other counts related to the parking ramp murder as well as a separate aggravated robbery from 2016.

He will be sentenced on March 8.