Minnesota man Craig Alan Hameister admitted he shot Melissa Hunt at a Kellogg boat launch before fleeing from police.

WABASHA, Minn. — A Rochester man was sentenced to 415 months in prison after pleading guilty to killing his ex-girlfriend, who drove herself from a rural boat launch to a nearby home before dying from a close-range gunshot wound.

Craig Alan Hameister, 45, received the sentence Monday in Wabasha County for the June 18, 2025, death of Melissa Hunt. The sentence, equal to about 34.5 years, closed a case that began with a wounded woman arriving in a driveway in rural Kellogg and ended with a guilty plea to second-degree intentional murder.

The court also gave Hameister credit for 327 days already served and ordered him to pay $10,134.97 in restitution. The sentence followed a March 3 plea in which Hameister admitted in court that he shot Hunt with a handgun and intended to kill her. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said after sentencing that Hunt “should still be with us today” and described her as kind, caring and devoted to her daughters. The case was prosecuted by Ellison’s office after a referral from Wabasha County Attorney Matthew Stinson, a step state law allows when a county attorney asks for help in a criminal case.

Hunt was 36 when she was shot at the boat launch in Kellogg, a Mississippi River community in southeastern Minnesota. After the shooting, officials said, she drove herself to a nearby residence despite severe injuries to her face. Deputies and first responders found her with portions of her jaw and teeth missing. She had trouble speaking, but she identified “Craig” as the person who attacked her. Earlier charging details said she also described Hameister’s white pickup truck and said the attack happened near the new boat launch. She was taken to a hospital, where she died from her injuries.

The first account of the attack was incomplete because Hunt, badly wounded, said Hameister had hit her with a stick. Investigators later found evidence that pointed to a shooting. Court documents said an autopsy showed gunshot residue in the wound to Hunt’s face. Law enforcement also reported finding an unspent 9 mm round at the boat launch and a live 9 mm round on the floor of Hameister’s truck. A 9 mm handgun was later recovered near the place where officers found Hameister. The charging record did not say why Hunt first described a stick, and officials later treated the case as a fatal shooting.

Authorities said Hameister left Kellogg after the attack and went to a property outside Chatfield in Olmsted County. People at the property told law enforcement he had been there and appeared frantic. One witness said Hameister said “something bad happened” and that police would be coming. Investigators found his truck there with the door open. A witness also told police that a 9 mm handgun was missing and that Hameister had left on a motorcycle. Those details sent law enforcement into a search that stretched beyond Wabasha County and drew officers toward the Chester Woods area east of Rochester.

Hameister was found after a several-hour standoff. Officials said he climbed a tree while trying to avoid arrest. Officers later recovered a 9 mm handgun at the base of the tree. The unusual capture became one of the most noted facts in the case, but prosecutors focused the court record on what happened before the arrest: Hunt was shot in the face at close range, left without aid and still managed to name the man who attacked her. The Wabasha County Sheriff’s Office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension helped investigate the killing.

Hameister was first charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one alleging intent without premeditation and one alleging murder without intent while committing a felony. He also faced a manslaughter count. Defense lawyers later challenged the intentional murder count, claiming a lack of probable cause, and also sought to keep out statements Hameister made to law enforcement. Prosecutors, meanwhile, said they intended to seek an aggravated sentence if he was convicted, citing the nature of Hunt’s injuries, the claim that Hameister failed to seek help and allegations that he lured Hunt to the boat launch.

The guilty plea resolved the case before trial. At the plea hearing, Hameister admitted he caused Hunt’s death by shooting her with a handgun and said he acted with the intent to kill. That admission narrowed the case to sentencing and removed the need for jurors to sort through competing motions, witness accounts and forensic evidence. Ellison said after the plea that crimes like this “demand justice” and said the plea ensured Hameister would be held accountable for taking Hunt’s life. The attorney general’s office said most criminal prosecutions in Minnesota remain with city and county attorneys, while state involvement in this case came through the Wabasha County referral.

Hunt’s death drew public attention in part because of the way she survived long enough to give deputies key information. Officials said she was a mother, daughter, sister and aunt. Ellison said people who knew her remembered her smile and her care for others. Hameister, who was from Rochester, will serve his prison term in the Minnesota correctional system. The court’s restitution order adds a financial judgment to the prison sentence, but the record released after sentencing did not give a full breakdown of the costs behind the amount.

The case now moves from Wabasha County court to the prison system, with Hameister serving a 415-month sentence and receiving credit for time already spent in custody. As of June 3, 2026, no further hearing date has been announced in the sentencing record.

Author note: Last updated June 3, 2026.