CARLTON, Minn. — A Carlton County man died by suicide at a state prison last week, just two days after he was sentenced to more than 25 years for fatally shooting his ill wife in December 2021.

Raymond Arthur Julian, 67, took his own life at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud on Dec. 20 — the same day he was transferred to the facility to begin serving his sentence for the murder of Tracy Ellen Julian.

Minnesota Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sarah Fitzgerald confirmed the suicide to the Duluth News Tribune on Thursday, but the agency did not otherwise comment on the incident. St. Cloud is the intake prison for men committed to prison in Minnesota.

Raymond Arthur Julian

Julian on Dec. 18 was denied the leniency he sought after pleading guilty in September to what he described as a “mercy killing” carried out at his wife’s request. They argued for probation — an extraordinary request for intentional second-degree murder — but Judge Amy Lukasavitz imposed a guideline 306-month term.

Defense attorney Andrew Poole told the News Tribune earlier this week that he heard of his client’s death but wasn’t personally aware of the details.

“The deaths of Tracy and Raymond Julian were a true tragedy,” Poole said in an email. “The right to end your life with dignity is recognized in many jurisdictions in our country, but such a right does not exist in the state of Minnesota. Nobody in this case disputed that Tracy was terribly sick. Raymond deeply loved her, and he took her life at her request to end her suffering. As stated by their close friend, ‘This is the epitome of a true love story.’”

Julians had a ‘suicide pact,’ defense says

Julian testified at his plea hearing that he used a shotgun to shoot his 62-year-old wife near the heart and at the base of the skull in a pole barn on their property in Kalevala Township.

But the defendant told the court: “It was a suicide by her, with me as the instrument.” Court filings indicate the victim suffered from severe COPD, had undergone heart valve replacement surgery and had been dealing with breathing issues for some 15 years.

Poole noted that Raymond Julian had told a friend that he entered into a “suicide pact” with his severely ill wife days before her death. And Tracy Julian herself also left behind writings about that option.

In a series of handwritten notes from the weeks leading up to her death, Tracy lamented that she could not have “death with dignity,” saying she hoped to “keep the gun out of it” but apparently accepting that as a possibility. She also made a list of people to “talk to/say goodbye to” and wrote, “I give up,” according to copies filed with the court.

Poole said his client, intent on ending his own life, was in the process of sending packages of mementos to loved ones when Carlton County sheriff’s deputies showed up at the residence Dec. 10, 2021. Authorities had been tipped off by a friend, who reported receiving an email from Raymond about the plan to kill Tracy.

“This case has nothing in common with the hallmark traits of a normal murder, where one intentionally takes the life of another as a result of rage, anger, or some other nefarious motive,” Poole told the court. “This was intended to be a love-based murder-suicide premised on ending Tracy’s pain and premised on Mr. Julian not wanting to live without Tracy.”

‘Murder is not an act of love’

But Chief Deputy Carlton County Attorney Jeff Boucher disagreed with the defense’s rationalization of the “particularly cruel” slaying, stating: “Murder is not an act of love.”

He requested a 30-year sentence.

“There was no suicide note and no communication in the days before her death that these were her wishes,” the prosecutor wrote. “And even if there were, this would still be a murder. A person does not forfeit their right to live by contemplating suicide. Contemplating mortality, even imminently faced mortality, does not excuse murder. A suicide note is not a license to kill.”

Boucher said probation would have been an unprecedented outcome in recent memory. Not a single one of the 381 defendants sentenced for intentional second-degree murder in Minnesota over the past 12 years have received such a break.

And he argued Julian’s actions were no less severe than the typical case. The prosecutor said medical records showed Tracy was ill, “but not prognosed as terminally ill.” He wrote that Raymond’s actions would have been a crime in all 11 jurisdictions that have legalized assisted suicide, as well as under legislation that was proposed in Minnesota earlier this year.

The prosecutor also cited other troubling evidence against Raymond. He told a friend that he personally had made the decision to shoot his wife. Tracy herself “had no apparent communication with the outside world and did not communicate a desire to end her life to the last person to see her alive besides Mr. Julian.”

And within a week of the murder, Raymond was expressing his love for an old romantic partner in messages sent from the Carlton County Jail.

Boucher asked the judge not to be swayed by how the defendant “essentially framed himself in a moral light.”

“Lost in all of this is Ms. Julian’s voice,” the prosecutor told the court.

Under Judge Lukasavitz’s sentence, Julian would have been required to serve at least 17 years in custody before becoming eligible for supervised release. He would have been in his early 80s by that point.

To get help

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org/chat

Crisis Text Line: Text MN to 741741

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