Roger Beldo

BABBITT- Roger Beldo pled guilty to second degree murder “with intent” in a Virginia courtroom May 8 in the deaths of an elderly Babbitt couple last October. Beldo acknowledged the double homicide as part of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors, under which the prosecution agreed to drop any pursuit of stricter sentencing.
In return, Beldo will receive a sentence of 556 months (46.3 years) served consecutively. Formal sentencing is set for Aug. 5.
A tragic incident
Last Oct. 28, Beldo made multiple 911 calls, asking to turn himself in, claiming he’d “done bad things.” Duluth police first contacted Beldo in the parking lot at Essentia Health-St. Mary’s in Duluth, where he asked to be taken to jail. He later acknowledged that he had killed Clifford and Christine Johnson, who had agreed to rent him and his dog a room in their Babbitt home about a month earlier. He said he attacked Clifford in the garage with a crowbar and Christine in her bedroom with a hammer.
Beldo later drove to Duluth in the Johnson’s vehicle, a red Nissan Rogue. Duluth police reported Beldo had slurred speech and smelled of alcohol when he was taken into custody.
Based on Beldo’s claims, the Babbitt police and St. Louis County Sheriff’s deputies responded to 14 Fir Circle, the single-story home owned by the Johnsons. Inside they found Clifford and Christine Johnson, ages 79 and 78, in the locations Beldo had earlier described. Both were deceased with blunt trauma injuries to their heads and bodies.
A troubled past
Beldo, age 54, has a long and disturbing criminal record, dating back 30 years. According to Minnesota court records, his violations include indecent exposure, harassment, felony assault, theft, and 15 convictions for disorderly conduct. Beldo committed all but one offense in St. Louis County.
On Sept. 5, 2023, Beldo posted to his Facebook page that he had been “kicked out” and needed a place to live. Sometime later he landed at the Johnsons’ home in Babbitt. The day after the murders, the Johnsons’ granddaughter told the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office that Beldo had been living with her grandparents for about a month.
The fit between Beldo and the Johnsons was an uncomfortable one from the start. Starting on Sept. 29, Beldo began asking for help on social media to find a one-bedroom apartment that would take a Section 8 voucher. The tone of his requests became more strident with time.
“Please I can’t take another weekend stuck here,” Beldo pleaded on his Facebook page on Oct. 13. The last plea was dated Oct. 26, two days before police found the bodies of the Johnsons.
In his petition for a guilty plea, Beldo stated that he killed Clifford Johnson as Johnson was removing him from his home. “Clifford Johnson was in his garage about to take me away from the house after I loaded my belongings into his vehicle. I struck him multiple times in the back and in the head with a heavy metal rod, intending to kill him.” Having killed Clifford, Beldo went back into the house to kill Christine Johnson.
The Johnsons were newcomers to Babbitt, having bought their home on Fir Circle in 2021.
Plea bargain
Beldo was originally booked into the county jail with a bail set on Nov. 1 of $1 million. Court records reveal that Judge Michelle Anderson ordered a competency evaluation for Beldo on Nov. 6 at the request of Beldo’s public defender, Scott Swanson. Swanson reported, “The Defendant has refused to speak with him whether by phone or in person.” Swanson sent a second request for competency evaluation on Feb. 29.
The St. Louis County Attorney’s office filed notice on Dec. 28 that if Beldo went to trial, the prosecution would seek an “upward departure” in sentencing, to make any penalties more stringent, based on aggravating circumstances, including the vulnerability of the elderly victims, the cruelty of leaving them to die of their injuries, and fact that the Johnsons had helped Beldo by opening their home to him. Beldo had also previously been convicted of felony assault where the victim received similar injuries.
“While a guilty plea is an essential step towards legal closure and accountability, we recognize that it will not mitigate the emotional pain or lessen the sense of loss experienced by the loved ones of Clifford and Christine Johnson,” said St. Louis County Attorney Kim Maki in response to the plea. “Our thoughts go out to them.”
The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, the Babbitt Police Department, the Duluth Police Department, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension all contributed to the investigation of the Johnson murders.