A 27-year-old Minnesota woman will spend the next two decades behind bars after shooting a man at her father’s home — and then trying to cover it all up while her dad was away on vacation.
“She said he was f—ing with her and she could not take it anymore, so she shot him.”
Josephine Powers was sentenced to 261 months — just under 22 years — in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree intentional murder in the death of 70-year-old Michael Robert Riccio in Burnsville, Minnesota.
The shooting happened on July 9, 2024, while Powers was staying at her father’s home. When her father returned from vacation, he noticed what he thought were splatters of brown paint on the walls — and found a man in a hazmat suit ripping up the basement carpet.
Days later, a strong smell of bleach and patched-up bullet holes in the wall raised more red flags. It wasn’t until July 18 that a friend told Powers’ father the truth: someone had been killed inside his home.
That same day, Powers went to police. But she initially lied — claiming a male friend had pulled the trigger.
Investigators later learned she had enlisted 48-year-old Christopher Hawkins to help clean up the scene. Hawkins, who had been promised a truck in exchange for moving a “package,” arrived to find blood throughout the home and a body wrapped in garbage bags and rugs. He helped clean up and transported Riccio’s remains in his pickup truck.
Riccio’s body was eventually found in a gray storage tote on Hawkins’ property. He had been killed by a single gunshot wound to the head.
Powers received credit for 669 days already served. Hawkins pleaded guilty to aiding an offender and is set to be sentenced on June 18.
Key facts
- Josephine Powers, 27, sentenced to 261 months in prison
- Victim: Michael Robert Riccio, 70 — single gunshot to the head
- Crime scene cleaned up by accomplice Christopher Hawkins
- Powers’ father discovered the cover-up after returning from vacation
- Hawkins sentencing: June 18
