VIRGINIA- An Ely youth was convicted on Jan. 24 of the second-degree attempted murder of his younger brother. Minnesota Sixth District Judge Robert Friday passed down the guilty verdict at his bench in Virginia for Michael William Haapala, age 18. Haapala waived his right to a jury trial, opting for a judge’s decision based on an agreed-upon submission of 124 items of evidence.
Haapala was 16 when he attacked and stabbed his then 13-year-old brother 13 times early on Oct.8, 2020. Originally charged as a juvenile, the state prosecutor’s office successfully moved to have Haapala charged as an adult late in 2021.
Haapala was twice evaluated for mental competency, once as a juvenile and once as an adult, and found fit to stand trial.
Judge Friday’s verdict was a general finding. Minnesota requires him to issue a detailed memorandum within seven days explaining his verdict. Friday scheduled a hearing for this purpose on Feb 2, which is after the time that the Feb. 3 issue of the Timberjay goes to press.

The original incident
Haapala took his brother for a walk between 2-3 a.m. in the woods near Trezona Trail on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. Haapala stabbed his brother multiple times. He left his brother in a ravine by Miner’s Lake, assiming that he would die from blood loss. One of the stab wounds rendered the victim incapable of speech, making it impossible to call for help.
A hiker spotted the victim around 3 p.m. and called 911. He later led Officer Deinhammer of the Ely Police Department to the scene. When Deinhammer first examined the victim, he “was cold to the touch,” and when the officer checked for a pulse, he “heard a groaning sound,” according to the charging documents on file with the court.
The victim was first transported to Ely Bloomenson Hospital and later to Essentia Health in Duluth via Life Link air ambulance.
Haapala admitted to police in the presence of his father that he had stabbed his brother. Police found the knife used in the attack in Haapala’s closet and his wet sneakers with what appeared to be blood on them in his bedroom.

Juvenile charge
Haapala was sent to the Arrowhead Juvenile Center in Duluth. As originally reported in the Timberjay, Haapala was arraigned during the last week of October 2022 for attempted murder in the second degree, which means that the attacker intended to kill but that the act was not premeditated.
At that time, Sixth District Judge Michelle Anderson in Virginia ordered “Rule 20” psychiatric, psychological and competency studies, along with a chemical dependency study and a family assessment by St. Louis County Public Health and Human Services.
In April 2021, Haapala was deemed mentally unfit for trial but was later deemed restored to mental competancy according to the Duluth News Tribune. Due to restored competency, Judge Anderson granted a motion by the St. Louis Co. Prosecutor’s office in Dec. 2021 to allow Haapala to be tried as an adult.
The public defender representing Haapala, Lara Whiteside of Cook, filed documents with the court intending to defend Haapala on the grounds of “mental illness of deficiency.” The adult case was assigned to Judge Friday, who ordered a new mental assessment of Haapala on Jan.19, 2022.
Again found mentally competent, Haapala waived his right to a jury trial, opting for a stipulated evidence trial initialed by Judge Friday at the St. Louis Co. Courthouse in Virginia on Jan. 17.