Travis William Lester pleaded guilty after a September attack that left both victims in critical condition.

CHAMPLIN, Minn. — A Minnesota man who admitted stabbing both of his parents inside their Champlin home was sentenced May 8 to more than 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of attempted second-degree murder.

Travis William Lester, 40, of Circle Pines, received a sentence of 135 months and 15 days, with credit for 245 days already served in jail. The case closed a violent family assault that began with a confusing 911 call, spread across a neighborhood on 120th Avenue North and ended hours later with a traffic stop in Lino Lakes.

The attack happened the evening of Sept. 5, 2025, after police were called to a home on the 7100 block of 120th Avenue North. Dispatchers first heard fumbling on the line and then someone yell, “No,” before officers were sent to the address. A neighbor also called 911 after finding a woman at the home covered in blood. When officers arrived, they found Lester’s father on a privacy deck, moaning and gripping a railing with blood-covered hands. He told police that his son had stabbed him and his wife. He also said he did not know where Lester had gone or where his wife was. The father described the attack to police as a “drug-induced rage,” according to charging documents.

The father had stab wounds to his neck, chest, abdomen and hand. Police later found Lester’s mother at a neighboring house. She had stab wounds to her neck, chest, abdomen and arms. Emergency medical workers took both parents to a hospital in critical condition. Local reports said the victims needed emergency surgery and were intubated for at least three days. Officers also reported blood inside and outside the house, including signs of violence near the kitchen area. A bloody knife was found under a kitchen table, while investigators began looking for Lester and a silver Buick Lucerne tied to him. Authorities did not release the victims’ names in the public reports reviewed for the case.

The search moved quickly from the home to nearby roads. Police learned Lester’s vehicle had been seen near Brooklyn Park shortly after the attack, then spotted again later in Lino Lakes. Officers stopped the car around 9:15 p.m., several hours after the first call. During the stop, police saw a large kitchen knife inside the vehicle. Investigators said the knife appeared similar to one from the victims’ kitchen set. Police also found a clear jar in the center console or cup holder area that appeared to contain methamphetamine. Lester was taken into custody without incident and later booked into the Hennepin County Jail. The arrest ended a brief shelter-in-place order that had been issued while officers and neighboring agencies searched for him.

In a post-Miranda statement, Lester admitted stabbing his parents, according to the complaint. Police said he told them he had been thinking about doing it for “a day or two” but “didn’t want to.” The statement became a central fact in the case because it showed prosecutors were not treating the assault as only a sudden household fight. Lester was charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder with intent, not premeditated. The charges reflected allegations that both victims were attacked with a knife and survived wounds that police and medical workers described as life-threatening. The case moved through Hennepin County District Court over the next several months.

Lester pleaded guilty April 10, about seven months after the attack. Before that plea, he sent a handwritten motion from jail asking the court to dismiss the case. In that filing, he argued that his constitutional rights were violated because he was held on $1 million bail before being convicted. He wrote that the case showed “cruel and unusual punishment” and called excessive bail “an abomination of the law.” The motion did not stop the case from moving toward a plea and sentencing. His guilty plea meant the parents were not required to testify at a public trial about the attack inside their home.

The sentence imposed May 8 requires Lester to serve more than a decade in state prison, though Minnesota sentencing rules can affect how much time is served in custody and how much is served under supervision. Local reports said he was expected to serve the prison term at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud. The sentence also credited him for 245 days already spent in jail after his Sept. 6 booking. Court records listed the final sentence as 135 months and 15 days. The two attempted murder counts came from the same night, but each count represented one injured parent. The Champlin case drew local attention because the violence unfolded in a residential area and forced police to search for an armed suspect after two people were found critically wounded. Officers from Champlin and other agencies helped secure the area, check the home and track the vehicle. Police said the victims and suspect knew each other, a statement later clarified through court filings and news reports that identified the victims as Lester’s parents. The house on 120th Avenue North became both the crime scene and the starting point for the search that reached Lino Lakes before the arrest.

The case also turned on a small set of physical evidence. Police said the kitchen knife in the vehicle matched a set found in the victims’ home, while the bloody knife under the kitchen table tied the violence to the house. The suspected methamphetamine found in the vehicle supported the father’s statement that the assault happened during a drug-induced rage, though the public reports did not say whether Lester faced a separate drug charge from the traffic stop. The documents also did not explain what, if anything, happened in the day or two when Lester said he had been thinking about the attack.

Lester’s parents survived, but both were critically injured and needed emergency care after the stabbing. The public record does not include detailed statements from them after the sentencing, and authorities did not release a fuller account of their recovery. The sentence leaves Lester in state custody while the criminal case stands resolved through his guilty plea and May 8 sentencing.

Author note: Last updated June 15, 2026.