The injuries incurred by Charlene Wunderlich, a Hugo woman who was beaten to death on Monday, suggest that she was beaten “over the course of several hours, if not over several days,” a Washington County prosecutor said Thursday.

“There was significant violence alleged in this,” assistant Washington County Attorney Wade Kish said during her son Trevor Joseph Wunderlich’s first appearance in Washington County District Court.

Trevor Joseph Wunderlich. (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

Wunderlich, 45, of Hugo, was charged Thursday with second-degree murder. Washington County District Court Judge Juanita Freeman bail set at $2 million with conditions.

When Freeman asked Wunderlich if he was aware of his rights, he said he was not.

“No. No, I’m not. This is like a complete nightmare for me,” Wunderlich said. “I did not intend for any of this to happen.”

Wunderlich, appearing by video from the Washington County Jail, was wearing a green jail-issued sleeveless suit designed to prevent him from harming himself.

According to the criminal complaint, deputies from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office responded around 5:55 p.m. Monday to an open 911 line originating from 15939 Ingersoll Ave. Dispatchers could hear noises on the line consistent with an ongoing assault or struggle, the complaint states.

When deputies arrived, they entered the kitchen area of the home and observed Charlene Wunderlich “lying on the floor in obvious distress,” the complaint states. “Seated on a chair directly next to her was her son.”

Deputies attempted to detain Trevor Wunderlich but he ran into the basement of the home and fled out a rear door.

Deputies began to provide care to Charlene Wunderlich, who had “contusions, lacerations and other injuries on her face and head, her arms and legs, and throughout her torso,” the complaint states. “She was conscious for a short period of time and was able to tell officers that it was (her son) who had assaulted her.

Charlene Wunderlich lost consciousness and was transported to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where she was pronounced dead at 7:37 p.m. Monday, authorities said.

The cause of death was later determined to be multiple blunt force injuries, including multiple rib fractures, a sternal fracture, chest-wall hemorrhage and pulmonary contusions.

An overnight manhunt for Trevor Wunderlich ended when law-enforcement officers received a tip from a neighbor that she had found a man, believed to be Trevor Wunderlich, in a camper on her property.

Trevor Wunderlich fled the scene, but law-enforcement officers found him nearby and took him into custody, the complaint states.

On Thursday, Wunderlich said he would need to be represented by a public defender because he did not have access to any of his money.

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“I have money to hire a private attorney, but I don’t have access to any of my money. That’s the problem,” he said. “I don’t have a way to call them. They haven’t even let me call him yet since I’ve been incarcerated. And you know, Washington County has kind of had it out for me for a long time. We’re just trying to move to the North Shore. … ”

Kristin Johnson, the court-appointed attorney then interrupted Wunderlich, and said: “I would again suggest that you don’t have to say anything. Additionally, I would suggest that you just reserve your bail argument today.”

Charlene Wunderlich and her late husband, William M. “Skip” Wunderlich, ran a dog-kennel business, Bill Wunderlich’s North Oaks Kennels, out of the 35-acre property; the business had previously belonged to Skip Wunderlich’s father. Skip Wunderlich died in 2020.

Trevor Wunderlich said Thursday that he also worked at the business, but that he made “zero dollars now” because the business is “obsolete now.”

“How much money do you have in the bank, sir?” Freeman asked.

“Zero,” he responded.

“All right. And do you own or rent a home?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah. We own,” he said. “Well, I don’t own them. I guess my mom did, so I don’t know who owns them now.”

Wunderlich said he did not own any other homes either and worked full-time at the dog-kennel business. He said his mother had been collecting Social Security for the past “six or seven years.”

“No, I don’t make any money,” he said. “The (business) drained it all from me. We were trying to sell it before we went up north, so I’m drained.”

When Kish told Freeman that the presumptive sentence on the second-degree murder charge is 346 to 480 months, Wunderlich looked visibly surprised.

Minnesota court records show Wunderlich’s criminal history goes back for years. He has open cases, in which he’s charged with domestic assault against his fiancée and violating a domestic assault no contact order, both in April 2023.

Charlene Wunderlich wrote in a Nov. 4, 2020, petition for an order for protection against her son that he screamed and spit at her at least three times a week unless she hid or left, and that he threw things at her. He called her “terrible names,” and “breaks everything in the house,” she wrote.

She checked a box saying she believed she was in immediate danger “because it’s happening for three years now and it’s just escalating,” she wrote. She requested that her son be ordered to attend a domestic abuse program, an alcohol/chemical dependency evaluation and mental health evaluation.

Trevor Wunderlich was convicted of three separate instances of violating a domestic abuse no-contact order in 2021, in two incidents of assaulting three correctional officers at the Washington County jail in 2021, of third-degree assault in 2013, of possession of a firearm by an ineligible person in 2003 and terroristic threats in 2002.

Wunderlich will next appear in court at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 24 in front of Washington County District Court Judge Siv Mjanger.