Man arrested in Hermantown convicted of murder in Indiana

An Indiana man who was arrested in Hermantown in 2015 after allegedly killing another man in Indiana, then abducting his estranged wife and her three young children, was convicted of those crimes this week.
The Herald Bulletin of Anderson, Ind. , reported that a jury on Thursday night found Mark Emerson guilty of murder and four counts of kidnapping, among other charges, after an eight-day trial.
Emerson was arrested on June 22, 2015 at the Hermantown Wal-Mart - a drive of about 700 miles from Anderson - after his estranged wife managed to run and seek help.
The woman told Hermantown police that she and her three daughters were kidnapped from her home in Indiana by her estranged husband, Emerson. She told police that Emerson broke into her home, fatally stabbed a man there - 25-year-old Cody Gay - and forced her and the children into a car.
She said that Emerson planned to flee to Canada, and had stopped at the Wal-Mart to shoplift items to return in exchange for gift cards. When the woman was left alone in the car, she ran to the nearby Kolar car dealership to get help.
The Hermantown Police Department reported that four of its officers, as well as a St. Louis County sheriff’s deputy, traveled to Indiana last week to testify at the trial. A Kolar employee who spoke with the woman after she fled the car also testified at the trial, the Herald Bulletin reported.