Jurors have found a Twin Cities man guilty of killing another man with one punch during a confrontation outside a Lake Mille Lacs resort.
David M. Stay, 46, of Brooklyn Park, was convicted last week in Mille Lacs County District Court of first-degree manslaughter and fifth-degree assault in the death of David Taute, 46, of Prior Lake, in May 2016. Jurors acquitted Stay on a first-degree assault count.
Stay remains free on bail ahead of sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.
The clash occurred at the outset of the annual Minnesota fishing opener about 1 a.m. outside Nitti's Hunters Point Resort on the lake's eastern shore.
Witnesses told authorities that the two were talking before Stay knocked out Taute with one punch to the jaw. He never regained consciousness.
Taute's "passion was fishing and hunting," his online obituary read. Among his survivors were a son and his fiancée, Cathie Kranz.
Stay was spotted afterward walking along a road and told a deputy, "I knocked him out," the criminal complaint against him read. He told authorities that Taute had been pushing him. A sheriff's deputy noted that Stay smelled of alcohol but did not appear to be intoxicated.
Video surveillance from the resort showed Stay throwing the fatal punch but revealed nothing Taute did leading up to being hit.
Stay's criminal history in Minnesota includes convictions for three instances of drunken driving, assault and disorderly conduct.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
