A 32-year-old who was upset about a man making fun of his facial tattoos assaulted him with the flat side of a machete, according to criminal charges filed Friday. When his cousin stepped between them, he punched her.
The woman, Cornella Roybal, 39, was found unresponsive and pronounced dead in her St. Paul residence on Sunday morning.
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Roybal died of head injuries and prosecutors charged Zenas Farkarlun, of St. Paul, with second-degree unintentional murder on Friday.
Roybal was the mother of three children and “will always be remembered for her beautiful smile, laughter and humor,” her family wrote in her obituary.
Police were first called to the address in the North End on Arlington Avenue near Jackson Street late Saturday, just before midnight, on a report of an aggravated assault.
Roybal’s fiancé, Warren Charwood, reported they were all watching the Vikings game and drinking when Farkarlun became upset about a man making fun of his tattoos. Farkarlun grabbed a machete from the closet and struck the man with the “flat/dull side in the side of the face telling him to ‘shut the (expletive) up'” and “If this guy keeps talking (expletive), I’m going to kill him,” according to the criminal complaint.
When Roybal stepped between them, Farkarlun punched her in the face and the side of her head, the complaint continued.
Farkarlun said, “Then I’ll have to kill everybody else for no witnesses,” the complaint said. He ordered everyone to put their cell phones in front of him, so no one could call the police. Farkarlun and the man he initially hit with the machete started fighting, and Farkarlun eventually escaped with that man’s cell phone.
Paramedics took the man to Regions Hospital with injuries to his head and face. Police were told Roybal had been punched twice in the head and face, “was extremely intoxicated and went upstairs and went to bed prior to police and medics arriving,” the complaint said.
Officers found Roybal “asleep in bed, passed out, snoring” and noted she had injuries to her mouth and face, according to the complaint.
On Sunday about 6:40 a.m., officers and paramedics were called to the address again on a report that a woman wasn’t breathing and paramedics pronounced Roybal dead. Charwood reported he last heard her snoring around midnight, but found her unresponsive that morning.
An autopsy revealed she died from traumatic head injuries and the medical examiner’s office ruled her death a homicide, with staff telling investigators the assault described by witnesses could produce the injuries that resulted in Roybal’s death.
The Minneapolis Police SWAT team arrested Farkarlun on Thursday and he was brought to St. Paul police headquarters. He told police that his cousin, Roybal, allowed him to stay at the address and he left at some point on Saturday.
Farkarlun said Roybal already had bruising to her face when he arrived.
“He initially denied that any kind of dispute or altercation occurred while he was there,” the complaint said. After seeing photos of injuries of the man, he said he assaulted him with the machete because he’d been “acting like he was better than everyone else,” according to the complaint.
Farkarlun said he had not assaulted Roybal, and the two other men there must have done it after he left.
“Investigators told him that this made no sense,” the complaint said. “He disagreed.”
In addition to murder, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Farkarlun with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and robbery.
Farkarlun’s criminal history includes convictions for second-degree assault in 2005, prohibited person in possession of a firearm in 2005, first-degree aggravated robbery in 2008 and first-degree aggravated robbery in 2013, the complaint said. He is awaiting sentencing in a domestic assault by strangulation case against another cousin.
