Minnesota rape defendant convicted in absentia after vanishing during trial jumps to his death

Paul Walsh, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Apr 25, 2025

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MINNEAPOLIS — A Twin Cities rape and kidnapping defendant who was convicted in absentia after disappearing as he was about to be cross-examined jumped to his death from a highway overpass near a Texas airport, his attorney said Friday.

David Powers, 37, of New Auburn, Minnesota, who was found guilty Tuesday in Washington County District Court in connection with his crimes on May 2023 in Lake Elmo, leapt from from a bridge Thursday near the San Antonio International Airport, defense attorney Bruce Rivers told the Star Tribune.

“He jumped off a bridge and was taken into custody, and he died on the way to the hospital,” said Rivers, who was briefed by police in San Antonio about the Wednesday night incident.

Doug Anschutz, chief deputy with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, said, “It is our understanding that a person believed to Powers was involved in an incident in San Antonio, and died because of his injuries, but the details of the incident in Texas I cannot speak to.”

Rivers said Powers’ death brings “a tragic end to something that didn’t have to happen. ... It turns out he just couldn’t take the heat.”

KENS-TV in San Antonio reported, according to police, that the man later determined to be Powers was walking along the highway and trying to get drivers to stop.

“A citizen stopped his vehicle to assist, when the male suspect pulled the citizen out of his vehicle and began assaulting the citizen, attempting to take the citizen’s vehicle,” the TV station said, citing a police report.

Police detained the man, had him rushed to a hospital, the station’s report continued.

Jurors convicted Powers on Tuesday of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping and domestic assault by strangulation in connection with him keeping a woman captive for more than 24 hours in her apartment.

The verdicts from the jurors came with Powers not there to hear the result of the five-day trial in connection with his crimes at the home in the 9500 block of Hudson Boulevard.

Powers had testified on April 18, but when the trial resumed Monday, he failed to return for cross-examination by prosecutor Scott Haldeman.

Defense attorney Bruce Rivers told the court he did not know Powers’ whereabouts, and an arrest warrant was issued.

Had he been sentenced, Powers would have faced decades in prison.

On Wednesday, Rivers said, “I’ve been a lawyer for 27 years, and I’ve never had a case where I finished a trial without my client sitting next to me.”

Rivers said Powers “did pretty well” when he testified, and “I thought he was going to hold up on cross-examination.”

According to the criminal complaint:

Sheriff’s deputies were called to the apartment just before 9 a.m. on May 2, 2023, on a request for a welfare check after the woman failed to report for work.

Deputies arrived and saw the woman screaming for help while frantically trying to open an upper-level window. A man appeared behind her and pulled her back.

The deputies forced their way into the residence and arrested Powers. The deputies saw the woman had significant injuries to her neck, a forearm and hands.

She told them that Powers had been staying with her for a few weeks. After they attended a sporting event together the previous evening, she left Powers at her apartment in the midst of an argument and stayed with friends in an neighboring city.

When she returned early the next morning, she said, Powers physically assaulted her for three hours. Throughout the attack, he threatened to kill her and destroyed many of her belongings.

The woman told deputies she tried to escape but that Powers restrained her and kept her from getting to her cellphone or keys.

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