VIRGINIA — It took 34 years to find the man who raped and killed Nancy Daugherty inside her Chisholm home in 1986. Her family returned to an Iron Range courtroom Thursday as Michael Allan Carbo Jr. was sentenced, for the second time, to life in prison with a chance for parole after 17 years.
The 2020 arrest of Carbo stunned the city of Chisholm and launched the first case in Minnesota that used online genetic databases to break it open. It would span more than five years and two trials after the Minnesota Supreme Court ordered a new one last year. Carbo was found guilty again in January, and his latest bid to overturn the conviction was denied last month.
“It was a shock to go through a new trial — I had to live the tragedy again,” said Gina Haggard, who testified during the second trial about her mother. “I have new anger to deal with. I have new scars to deal with.”
Carbo, 57, wore a blue jail-issued jumpsuit and stared ahead for most of the hearing. He visibly shook his head and mouthed the word “No” as prosecutor Chris Florey spoke about the impact of the case.
“It is impossible to put into words the fear and pain Mr. Carbo put Ms. Daugherty through, her family through, and the community through,” Florey said.
Four pictures of Daugherty were simultaneously displayed on the courtroom monitors.
“You got the wrong person,” Carbo told the court later. He was 18 at the time of the murder. “I’m innocent of this charge. I did not kill Ms. Daugherty.”
The defense team, led by John Douglas Schmid, said there were “two tragedies” in the case: Daugherty’s murder and the conviction of Carbo for a crime he didn’t commit.
Schmid said the nearly four decades between the original crime and trial brought “challenges that vastly exceed this case.” Time and memory factored into defending it — Minnesota has no statute of limitations on murders — and Carbo receiving the second-highest sentence possible despite those issues “reflects the arrogance of a court system that claims to be able to differentiate between people who are factually guilty and people who are factually innocent.”
He made a similar argument about the open-ended nature of murder cases in Minnesota while attempting to toss out the conviction. In denying it, Judge Robert C. Friday noted the potential for new case law, but said he lacked the authority in district court. On Thursday, the judge declined to address Schmid’s comments or Carbo’s claims of innocence.
Friday instead focused on Carbo’s decision to testify at his second trial.
“He, by his own admission, has no idea whether he did or did not kill Ms. Daugherty,” Friday said.
Carbo has 90 days to appeal the new sentence, which would go directly to the Minnesota Supreme Court. As it stands, he’ll be eligible for parole in 2037 after being credited with 1,906 days of time served.
Minnesota changed its minimum parole standards for life sentences from 17 years to 30 years in 1989, but Carbo’s case reverts back to when the crime was committed in 1986.
For Haggard, she hoped the second sentencing of her mother’s murderer would close out the legal case. Emotional closure would need more time.
“I will think of her everyday, but not be able to talk to her, not be able to hug her,” Haggard said, noting she has some jewelry and other items passed down from Daugherty, and memories of her mother. “That’s not enough.”
