Alexandra Pennig was a troubled woman who fought mental health and addiction issues and ultimately put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger in her downtown St. Paul apartment in December 2022, Matthew Ecker’s lawyer told a jury Thursday.

In his opening statement in Ecker’s murder trial, defense attorney Bruce Rivers told jurors that although his client was a married man and had been seeing Pennig on the side, he is not a killer.

“In this case, you’re going to see there is absolutely no physical evidence supporting that this is homicide,” Rivers said.

Matthew Phillip Ecker (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Ecker, 45, a former Fergus Falls emergency room nurse practitioner, is accused of killing 32-year-old Pennig with his handgun in her Lowertown apartment on Dec. 16, 2022. He faces one count of second-degree intentional murder, not premeditated.

Rivers painted a much different picture of Ecker, one of a man who cared for Pennig and even loved her.

Rivers told jurors that they would hear about Pennig’s prior suicide attempt a year and a half earlier. And three days before her death, he said, she texted Ecker to tell him she felt “hopeless.”

“But you won’t hear or see or know about any dispute between the two of them,” Rivers said. “There was no arguing, no animosity between them.”

Ecker, who has been out of jail on a half-million dollar bond since late 2022, wore a gray suit and a pink tie and sat attentively during opening statements. Later, while a recording of his 911 call was played in court, he put his right hand to his eyes several times.

‘Inconsistencies’

Ecker called 911 from the apartment at 260 E. Fifth St. at 2:50 a.m. and reported that Pennig had shot herself in the head. He told dispatch that he called four minutes after she pulled the trigger, and that he had a permit to carry a firearm.

Officers found Pennig lying on her back in the bathroom with a gunshot wound to the left side of her head. She was not breathing, and soon pronounced dead. Her left hand was on top of a handgun, which was lying on her chest.

“But as officers continued to arrive, they started noticing inconsistencies that turned this from a suicide response to a homicide investigation,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Gordon Knobloch said in his opening statement.

In the hallway outside the apartment, Ecker told police that Pennig had taken his gun from his backpack, then ran and locked herself in the bathroom, where she shot herself. Ecker said he was on the apartment couch, ran to the bathroom and broke the door down with his shoulder to get inside, according to the criminal complaint.

“He said he tried to stop the bleeding by plugging Alex’s head,” Knobloch said. “When officers asked why his hands were clean, he said he washed his hands in the bathroom sink. Officers found the bathroom sink to be dry.”

Officers noted that Ecker was crying, but “producing no tears,” Knobloch said.

Ecker initially told officers he performed CPR. He later admitted to investigators that he did not perform CPR on her, the complaint says.

Officers found Pennig’s feet to be straddling the bathroom door, which shows that it was open and not closed when she fell to the ground, Knobloch said.

Ecker told investigators he took the gun and put it in his suitcase because he got scared of getting in trouble because it was his gun. He said that after going back to the bathroom and looking at Pennig, he grabbed the gun and put it on her chest.

“Ecker said the gun was lying next to Ms. Pennig and he moved it onto her chest,” Knobloch said. “Ecker said the blood was streaming out and he didn’t know what to do, despite being an emergency room nurse practitioner.”

Officers found the pistol “remarkably clean,” Knobloch said.

Rivers told jurors that the medical examiner, Dr. Kelly Mills, as well as Dr. Lindsey Thomas, who was later hired by the defense, both agreed that Pennig’s manner of death “is undetermined.” “Let me re-read that statement: The manner of death by both medical examiners is undetermined,” Rivers said.

Mills noted in her autopsy report that a partial muzzle imprint was visible next to Pennig’s head wound, Rivers said. He went on to say that Ecker did not change out of his clothes and that police tests on his clothes found no blood.

With such a close shot, Rivers said, “(Ecker) would have had some blowback (of blood). But there’s nothing, and no gunshot residue.”

‘To protect her’

Under questioning at police headquarters, Ecker told investigators that he had been in an open relationship with Pennig for two years after meeting her at a Fergus Falls medical clinic where they both had worked. He said she knew about his wife and his four children, and that Pennig was OK with it.

“It was concealed from his wife, and you’ll hear that he’s now divorced,” Rivers said. “But he struck up this relationship with (Pennig), and he loved her.”

An analysis of Ecker’s phone showed that he had been refilling Pennig’s prescription drugs, including Adderall and diazepam, and helping her pay her rent, the complaint says.

“Now, was it best practice to fill the prescriptions of his girlfriend? No,” Rivers said. “Was it unethical? Probably. Was it illegal? No.”

Ecker told investigators that Pennig called him Dec. 15 on his way to work in an emergency room in Roseau, Minn., and asked him to come see her because she was being physically abused by her other boyfriend.

“(Ecker’s) mission to come down is nothing more than to protect her,” Rivers told jurors. “You’ll see that, hear that from other people.”

Ecker told investigators he called his work and said he wasn’t making it and then drove to St. Paul, arriving at Pennig’s apartment around 2 p.m. They went to three bars. At the second bar, Pennig learned that her other boyfriend was at Camp Bar.

Ecker said they decided to go to the bar, where the other boyfriend, who was with a woman, eventually approached them and punched him in the face. Security dragged the other boyfriend outside.

Rivers said Ecker and Pennig stayed for another 45 minutes or so before returning to her apartment.

“You’ll hear from a bartender, who was not on duty but was there,” Rivers said. “You’ll hear from him they were peaceful, getting along, that there were no issues between the two of them.”

Right-handed

Knobloch told jurors that they will hear about how Pennig was right-handed, and that she “hated guns.”

“And the state is not going to hide the ball,” he said. “You’re also going to hear that Alexandra Pennig struggled with substance abuse and mental health. You will hear from James Pennig, Alex’s dad, about her struggles, but also her triumphs.”

A friend from Pennig’s nursing school days will testify that the night before Pennig’s death, she “spoke excitedly about a job interview that she had earlier that day, and that Alex didn’t present any suicidal ideations.”

“You were selected because of your common sense,” Knobloch told jurors. “When listening to testimony and evaluating evidence, the one thing that can come through that door every day is your common sense. Don’t check that at the door, don’t check it at home.”

Knobloch and colleague Ambrosia Mosby-Velasco will continue presenting their case Friday morning. Testimony in the trial, before Ramsey County District Judge DeAnne Hilgers, is expected to last two weeks.

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