ST. PETER, MINN. – Tears welled in Deanna Darkow's eyes as she addressed the man who killed her fiancé.

Nightmares have haunted her each night, Darkow said, ever since a dispute last summer in North Mankato led to the shooting death of John Everette Lutgen-Bernatz, 27.

Across the courtroom room, a handcuffed Dominic Scott Ellen, who had pleaded guilty to the murder of Lutgen-Bernatz, mostly looked ahead, stone faced.

But Ellen, 42, seemed to flash a pained looked as Darkow spoke of how her fiancé thought of him as a brother, and how her daughter will grow up without a father.

"How do I explain to her that her father's not here?" Darkow asked. "That he was taken out by someone he considered family? How can I teach her to trust?"

Darkow, overcome by emotion, could not finish her statement, delivered during sentencing Tuesday at the Nicollet County Courthouse in St. Peter.

Ellen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder without intent, as part of a plea deal filed Feb. 14. The state dropped charges against him for assault, threats of violence and possession of a firearm without a serial number.

The Arlington, Minn., man was sentenced on Tuesday to almost 22 years in prison and supervised release.

Police said Ellen shot Lutgen-Bernatz four times in a dispute over money, according to charging documents. Darkow told police that Ellen had waited outside Lutgen-Bernatz's apartment and told him he was "was going to have to die," the criminal complaint said.

Darkow told police she heard a gunshot and saw her boyfriend had been shot in the head. She said Ellen then demanded money and ordered her to call people she knew to get it, a police report said.

The rare murder, North Mankato's first in 2024, came after the department had no homicide investigations the previous year.

During Tuesday's sentencing, about 20 family members and friends of Lutgen-Bernatz gathered in the Nicollet County courtroom, wearing red roses pinned over their hearts.

They carried victim impact statements, printed out on pieces of paper with the edges already worn, with corrections and additions scribbled in ink.

In the five statements shared in court, family and friends described Lutgen-Bernatz as a man who had lived a difficult life but sought to see the good in others.

He was described as a vulnerable adult with mental health issues who had been bullied throughout his life and yearned for friendship and acceptance. His parents acknowledged Lutgen-Bernatz had made mistakes and at the time of his death was running with a bad crowd.

His mother, Jacqui Washtock, said in court she has struggled since her son's death.

"As his mother, the unbearable anguish of my inability to protect him, has shattered my soul," Washtock said. She "struggles to find grace" for Ellen, she added.

Ellen, in a brief statement, said he hoped for forgiveness. "I've done this; John didn't deserve to die for any reason at all," Ellen said.

"I lost myself to drugs, and now there's a family that can't see their loved one," he added.