Jason Philip Filas Sentenced to Life in Prison After Danielle Grace Warren Was Stabbed to Death in Burnsville

Un juge du comté de Dakota a condamné lundi Jason Philip Filas, 49 ans, à la prison à vie pour avoir poignardé Danielle Grace Warren, la mère de 32 ans de ses trois enfants, à l'intérieur. a Maison Burnsville le 7 mai 2025. Le terme est arrivé seize mois après que Warren a crié dans un téléphone que Filas avait un couteau, et quatorze jours après un juge différent a effacé l'ordre domestique-abuse sans contact que était censé le tenir loin d'elle.

Judge David Lutz imposed the sentence after Filas pleaded guilty on September 18 to first-degree murder while committing domestic abuse with a past pattern of domestic abuse, the Sun Thisweek reported. L'accord de plaidoyer fixe une durée de vie obligatoire avec possibilité de libération conditionnelle après 30 ans. Deux chefs d'accusation tirés d'un acte d'accusation d'octobre 2025, d'un meurtre prémédité au premier degré et d'un meurtre intentionnel au deuxième degré, ont été rejetés au moment de la condamnation, the Pioneer Press reported.

Filas est entré dans ce que les avocats du Minnesota appellent un plaidoyer de Norgaard. Il a accepté la responsabilité pénale et reconnu qu'il n'est pas innocent, tout en soutenant qu'il ne se souvient pas de l'agression, CBS Minnesota reported from the court file. That plea does not require a defendant to narrate the killing from memory. It requires him to agree that the state’s evidence would convict him.

« No sentence can fully heal the loss and pain endured by Danielle’s family, friends and loved ones, » Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena said after the hearing. « I hope this outcome will provide some measure of peace. »

A sister heard the last call from 117th Street

Les plainte pénale Dans le dossier du tribunal 19HA-CR-25-920 place le meurtre sur le bloc 2000 de 117th Street East, l'adresse Burnsville indiquée pour Filas. Les agents connaissaient déjà la maison des appels de violence domestique.

Just after 9:30 a.m. on May 7, 2025, Warren phoned her sister. She was scared, the complaint says, because Filas was watching the home’s security camera from somewhere else and had seen another man leave that morning. She wanted her sister’s keys so she could get the children out. The complaint identifies Filas as the father of Warren’s three children. She said he was « freaking out. »

Minutes later Warren called again. This time Filas was inside. Her sister told investigators that Warren pretended she was talking to police. Then the pretense broke. Warren screamed, « He has a knife! Call 911! Call 911! » She kept screaming for her sister to hurry. The line went dead.

Des officiers de Burnsville ont été dépêchés vers 9 h 35. Le sang était sur la poignée de la porte d'entrée. Un officier regarda par une fenêtre arrière et vit Warren près d'un canapé, paraissant insensible, avec une grande quantité de sang visible. Les officiers ont forcé leur entrée et l'ont trouvée debout contre le canapé avec des coups de couteau et des blessures à son visage, au cou et à la poitrine. Un couteau de cuisine de 12 pouces avec du sang sur lui se trouvait dans le couloir entre la cuisine et le salon.

Warren a été déclaré mort sur les lieux. Le Bureau de l'examinateur médical du comté de Hennepin a documenté au moins neuf blessures à la tête, au cou et au haut du torse et a constaté que la mort était conforme à la violence homicide. Deux des enfants, âgés de 5 et 9 mois, étaient à la maison et n'ont pas été blessés. Filas était déjà parti.

The sister called 911, then called Warren’s phone again. Filas answered. According to the complaint, he said, « She should have never cheated on me. You better call 911. » The phone was then shut off. The sister said the relationship had been deteriorating for months, that Filas had been angry, and that he had followed Warren to a store because he believed she was cheating on him.

Stopped in Lakeville, then tased twice

Around 10 a.m., a Lakeville officer saw the vehicle registered to Filas traveling at a high rate of speed on Kenwood Trail and pulled it over. Filas was ordered out and onto the ground. The complaint says he kept looking around, then stood, grabbed at his waistband, and walked aggressively toward the officer despite commands to get back down. He said « shoot me » and « you’re not going to shoot me. » He ran. Officers deployed Tasers twice before he was handcuffed.

Dakota County charged him two days later with second-degree intentional murder with a dangerous weapon. Judge Timothy McManus set bail at $2 million. On October 2, 2025, a grand jury indicted Filas on the two first-degree counts and the second-degree count, Keena’s office announced. Either first-degree count carried a mandatory life sentence under Minnesota Statutes section 609.185. The count he admitted is the one used when a killing happens during domestic abuse and the defendant already had a pattern of abusing the victim or another household member.

The order a judge vacated the same day as a guilty plea

On March 13, 2025, Burnsville police went to the home for a domestic assault. A witness on the phone with Warren heard a struggle, Warren crying, and Filas yelling. Warren said, « please let go. » She told officers she was afraid he was going to hurt her. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported a sharper account from the filings: Filas « grabbed [Warren] by her hair and pulled her head down, » and the two « physically struggled » while he took her cellphone. One filing said, « [Warren] feels scared of [Filas] and believes he will hurt her. » That case was charged as domestic assault in file 19AV-CR-25-2499, and a domestic abuse no-contact order followed.

The order did not hold. On April 2, 2025, police stopped Filas for speeding in Burnsville and found Warren in the car. He pleaded guilty on April 23 to a misdemeanor violation of the order in file 19AV-CR-25-3147. A city agreement called for a stayed jail term. The same day, Judge Matthew Schmidt granted a defense request and vacated the no-contact order after Filas pleaded guilty and pledged to remain law-abiding. The filings do not give a fuller reason. Fourteen days later, Warren was dead.

A protection order only works if a court leaves it in place. Filas had already been accused of pulling Warren by the hair, had already been caught with her while the order was active, and had already heard her say she believed he would hurt her. Related police accountability reporting shows how often those warnings are treated as paperwork.

What her sister wants people to remember

KARE 11 spoke with Warren’s sister, Hannah Ryden, days after the killing. The three children were then 10, 5, and 9 months old. The two younger ones were in the house. Ryden, who stepped in to care for them, and other loved ones described Warren as a gifted artist who put other people first. A community painting set out for her and the children filled with signatures within a day.

« She did not deserve anything that happened to her whatsoever, » Ryden said. « I can’t imagine life without her right now, but she was amazing. I want them to remember her by how she was as a mom and as a person. »

She said Warren « cares about people more than she cares about herself, especially her kids. » The sisters were « like what people would say a soul mate, best friends, » the sort who said the same words at the same time. The oldest nephew told Ryden, « Happy Mother’s Day, auntie Hannah, since you’re kind of like our mom now. » She said she started crying.

In May 2025, Violence Free Minnesota counted Warren as the state’s sixth confirmed intimate-partner homicide victim that year. The number did not stay there. MPR News reported that advocates later counted at least 31 Minnesotans killed in intimate-partner violence in 2025, most of them women, along with one child and four men. About a third of those deaths came in November and December. The coalition has long said no government list captures every case, especially victims who rarely make the news.

« For every person who dies, there’s dozens of family members and loved ones who are left behind whose lives are irrevocably altered, » Meggie Royer, senior communications manager for Violence Free Minnesota, told MPR News. « It is really overwhelming and devastating. »

What the life term does not settle

Life with parole eligibility after 30 years is the mandatory floor for the first-degree count Filas admitted, not life without release. He was 49 when Lutz sentenced him. Eligibility is not a release date. It is the first moment a board is allowed to say no, and by then Warren’s children will be adults.

The Norgaard plea leaves a gap a jury might have closed. Filas did not have to explain why a security-camera image of another man leaving the house ended with nine stab wounds and a bloody kitchen knife in a hallway where a 5-year-old and a 9-month-old were present. He accepted that the evidence was enough. A claimed loss of memory is not an element of the crime.

Anyone in immediate danger can call 911. People in the United States can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, by texting START to 88788, or at thehotline.org. In Minnesota, Day One connects callers to shelter and advocates at 1-866-223-1111 or through dayoneservices.org, the line Dakota County published when Filas was first charged.

More homicide and court coverage lives in crime news et US news from The AEGIS Alliance, including reporting on off-duty officers and a domestic-assault stop that turned into a beating.