MN Couple Convicted Of Sexually Assaulting Infant Goddaughter

MINNESOTA — A man and a woman from Minnesota will serve decades in prison after they were convicted of sexually assaulting their infant goddaughter and using her for child porn.

Andrew Michael Nelson, 42, of Mountain Iron, Minnesota was sentenced on Monday to 320 months in prison, or nearly 27 years. He pleaded guilty last month to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Nelson's girlfriend, Darla Jean Queen, 35, previously pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of use of minors in pornographic work. She was sentenced in August to 268 months in prison or just over 22 years.

Both Queen and Nelson are also now registered as predatory offenders.

In her victim impact statement at Nelson’s sentencing, the victim's mother said the crimes committed by Nelson and Queen "hurt not only me and my child, but [also the] whole Range" and thanked the court for "listening and not taking this charge lightly, because [Nelson] could have destroyed so many more kids’ lives."

On Oct. 3, 2022, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension informed the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office that Nelson was uploading child pornography, according to the criminal complaint.

On Oct. 19, investigators executed a search warrant at his apartment and took hard drives, jump drives, sim cards, tablets, and phones, some of which appeared to have been freshly damaged, authorities said.

At the apartment, Nelson admitted to having uploaded child porn and that he is sexually aroused by viewing child porn, but denied ever engaging in sexual activity with children and denied ever taking pornographic photos or videos of children himself.

During the police interview, Queen arrived home. Questioned alone, she admitted that she and Nelson watched child pornography together, according to the criminal complaint. After further questioning, Queen admitted that they also filmed themselves sexually assaulting their goddaughter, an infant who lived in their same apartment complex, police stated.

When Nelson was brought back into the apartment, he was told that Queen "admitted to everything they had done," according to the criminal complaint.

Nelson was frustrated by this and asked Queen how she could be so "easy with this" and if she could "even imagine what their life is going to be like" going forward, police stated.

Queen said she did realize but couldn't lie about what they had done. According to the criminal complaint, Nelson responded, "But we could have gotten things in order and good attorneys and things in line!"

Nelson made no direct admissions to involvement with the infant, police said. He began making multiple suicidal statements and asked law enforcement to give him one day before taking him to jail, according to police.

After Nelson was arrested and led away, Queen gave police access codes to various devices so that law enforcement could more fully investigate what illegal items they may contain, the criminal complaint states.