Minnesota man enters plea agreement in assault

A Minnesota man charged with first-degree kidnapping and attempted murder after an assault in Clear Lake earlier this year has entered into a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to lesser charges. 

Albert Mesenbrink, 62, of Vadnais Heights, Minn., was charged on April 24 after an alleged assault of a Clear Lake woman on Easter Sunday. 

According to court records, the alleged victim told police she went to the AmericInn hotel to meet someone she knew.  She entered the hotel room where the meeting was to take place and she was grabbed by an unknown white male. The man took her clothes off, threatened her with a knife and attempted to strangle her. The suspect got away before police arrived. 

Mesenbrink pleaded not guilty to the charges in May, but on Wednesday, Nov. 12, pleaded guilty to second-degree kidnapping and willful injury causing serious injury. When Mesenbrink is sentenced he will face up to 35 years in prison, with at least 60-percent of the sentence needing to be served since it was a violent crime committed with a weapon. 

If Mesenbrink had been convicted of first-degree kidnapping, a Class A felony, he would have faced a mandatory life prison sentence.