A 34-year-old man has admitted to setting a double amputee's tent on fire at a homeless encampment near Target Field and severely burning the victim.

Anthony Curtis Leikas, of Minneapolis, agreed Monday to plead guilty in Hennepin County District Court to first-degree assault in connection with the attack on Dec. 4, 2023, of 58-year-old Steven J. Waddell.

Despite the criminal complaint against Leikas saying that Waddell was "unlikely to survive his injuries," Waddell was expected to testify should there have been a trial.

The plea agreement calls for dismissal of a first-degree attempted murder count and for Leikas to receive a term of slightly more than 13 years at sentencing Friday. With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Leikas is expected to serve the first eight years in prison and the balance on supervised release.

According to the complaint:

Police were alerted around 1 a.m. Dec. 5 that someone had started a fire at the encampment near Glenwood Avenue and Twins Way. Officers soon located Waddell on the ground, severely burned.

Waddell told the officers that a man said "burn in hell" as he set the tent ablaze.

Surveillance video showed that Leikas approached the tent, left, and then Waddell's shelter went up in flames shortly before midnight. First responders reached a suffering Waddell an hour later.

Video from a nearby gas station captured Leikas inside. Hennepin County intelligence analysts used those images to identify Leikas as the probable suspect.

After his arrest, Leikas watched video associated with the case. He told police he watched the fire burn, but it was set by two other people with cigarette butts.

Leikas has been convicted on multiple counts of robbery and burglary going back to 2008, court records show. He was sentenced to nearly five years in prison in 2008 following an aggravated robbery conviction, and he received a nearly three-year sentence in 2016 following a simple robbery conviction.