Ricco Dejon Tyson was sentenced Aug. 4th to 240 months (20 years) in prison for the murder of Tyler Ecklund. Tyson had previously entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder in Sherburne County District Court.
“I am hopeful that with the sentencing now complete, that some measure of closure is afforded to the family of Mr. Ecklund,” said Sherburne County Attorney Kathleen Heaney.
The investigation into Ecklund’s death was conducted by Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office, St. Cloud Police Department, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and other law enforcement agencies. The case was prosecuted by the Sherburne County Attorney’s Office.
Back Story
Ricco Dejon Tyson, 43, was charged with second-degree murder and first-and second-degree manslaughter earlier this spring in the death of Tyler Ecklund, who was found dead in a vacant lot in the 1000 block of 55th Avenue Southeast in St. Cloud on the evening of Nov. 14.
According to an autopsy, Ecklund died of a gunshot wound to the head.
According to a criminal complaint filed Dec. 11 in Sherburne County court, a woman told police Nov. 17 that she had let Ecklund use both her vehicle and her cell phone, according to the complaint. She told police she had not seen Ecklund in “about a week.”
On Nov. 18, Central Minnesota Violent Offenders Task Force members executed a narcotics search warrant at the residence of the woman who lent Ecklund her car. Police arrested her and three other adults. According to the criminal complaint, VOTF officers also found what they believed to be blood on a garage floor.
According to the criminal complaint, law enforcement learned that on Nov. 14, Tyson had sold an audio speaker box at a pawn shop in the Twin Cities area, according to the complaint. Investigators found “what appeared to be tinted vehicle glass” inside the box, and upon bringing it to the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office, discovered an “unknown, red-like material” on carpeting inside the box.
Police obtained surveillance video from the pawn shop that showed Tyson entering the store with the box and leaving in a vehicle which police believed to be the St. Cloud woman’s missing vehicle.
The missing vehicle was cited for a parking violation in Minneapolis on Nov. 18 across an alley from “a residence law enforcement knows is associated with the defendant,” according to the complaint. Police saw a person matching Tyson’s description outside the residence Nov. 30.
On Dec. 9, law enforcement arrested Tyson on another matter, according to the complaint. Tyson told police he knew Ecklund and occasionally stayed at the St. Cloud residence police had searched.
According to the complaint, Tyson told police he had been in a St. Cloud parking lot and called for people to bring him gas, as his vehicle had run out, according to the complaint. He told police that Ecklund and the St. Cloud woman met him in the woman’s vehicle, and that he had entered the rear passenger-side door.
Tyson told police he and Ecklund began arguing inside the vehicle, according to the complaint. Tyson stated he took a handgun out of his pocket and struck Ecklund twice in the head. Tyson “claimed as he struck [Ecklund] with the handgun a third time, it fired.”
Tyson told police he brought the vehicle back to the St. Cloud residence to “clean the blood from the vehicle,” according to the complaint. He also stated to police that he threw a cell phone in Ecklund’s possession away and disposed of the handgun in the Mississippi River, according to the court records.
Authorities said Tyson was identified as the person they believe shot Ecklund through a joint investigation by the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office, St. Cloud police and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
