ST. CLOUD – A Stearns County judge this week found a 30-year-old man guilty of murdering a Waite Park woman two years ago.

Jarquez J. Bedford was charged following the death of 52-year-old Andrea Cottew, who was found in February 2023 during a welfare check in her apartment in the 300 block of Park Meadows Drive in Waite Park.

In May 2023, Bedford was indicted on two additional first-degree charges: one count of premeditated murder and one count of intentional murder during an aggravated robbery, both felonies. In Minnesota, a grand jury indictment is required for crimes carrying a life sentence.

According to the criminal complaint filed against Bedford, the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office determined Cottew suffered three to four knife wounds across her neck and said her death was a homicide.

Waite Park police found no signs of forced entry into her apartment, but her phone, wallet, apartment keys and key fob were missing. Surveillance footage shows Cottew entering her apartment building just past noon on Feb. 5, 2023, when a man law enforcement identified as Bedford knocked on the building's locked entry door. The two talked briefly and then walked together toward the door of the first floor hallway, documents state.

"Within an hour, the defendant was observed on video exiting the back door of the apartment building," documents state. "The defendant's sweatshirt had been turned inside out."

Tenants on the third floor of the apartment building told police Bedford was staying with them and that Bedford told them he was looking for a job at the time Cottew was killed. Documents do not list a motive for the killing.

Testing from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension laboratory found Bedford's DNA was on a knife with Cottew's blood on it, as well as on her purse and a knotted-up sweatshirt in her bedroom, documents state.

The three-day trial for Bedford ended Jan. 23. On Thursday, Judge Andrew Pearson rendered a verdict finding Bedford guilty on all three counts. A sentencing date has not yet been set.