Jennifer Blue, the ex-girlfriend of a man stabbed to death Nov. 17 near Grand Forks, has been charged with murder along with three men.
She and the men will be arraigned in state district court today.
Investigators said from the start it was Joe Saucedo who stabbed Ruben Cisneros Jr. during a burglary of Cisneros’ home aimed at getting Blue’s property back.
On Nov. 19, Saucedo was charged with murder and burglary, while Blue, 23, Thomas Begg, 23, and Vincent Gladue, 24, were charged only with burglary.
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But Thursday, the amended complaints including murder counts against Blue, Begg and Gladue were made public, signed Wednesday by prosecutor Carmell Mattison. The four can enter formal pleas today.
They have been in the Grand Forks County jail since their arrests in November.
While Saucedo, who turned 22 in December, is the only one accused of stabbing Cisneros, the other three are just as guilty of his murder because he was killed during their burglary of his home, according to the new charges.
The murder charge they face carries a top prison sentence of life without parole. The burglary charge carries a top prison sentence of 10 years.
Fatal ‘beat down’
It was just turning to Blue’s birthday Nov. 17 when she and her sister, 16, and Saucedo, Gladue and Begg drove the 10 miles from East Grand Forks to Cisneros’ home, where he lived with a brother and his father northwest of Grand Forks International Airport.
Until days before, Blue had lived there, too, with Cisneros, who was 33.
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She came back with the four others to retrieve her property, including two Honda cars, clothing and other items, said Cisneros’ younger brother, Joel, who was awakened by the break-in.
By 1:02 a.m. that Sunday morning, Ruben Cisneros was bleeding and dying in his brother’s arms as his brother called 911. He died before the ambulance arrived and not long after the intruders headed back to East Grand Forks with the two Hondas and Blue’s pickup.
According to investigators’ affidavits of probable cause, Blue’s sister was arrested within an hour or two, driving the pickup in East Grand Forks. She told police she saw Saucedo stab Cisneros several times.
The girl said she met Saucedo, Begg and Gladue hours before and heard them plan with Jennifer Blue to “beat down” Cisneros and retrieve Blue’s property.
Saucedo, Begg and Gladue were living in an East Grand Forks motel and working at a local potato wash plant.
Saucedo moved to North Dakota last year from Tucker, Ga., worked in the Oil Patch for a time, then moved to the Grand Forks area looking for work.
Gladue is from Dunseith, N.D., Begg from Reynolds, N.D.
Blue lived with family members in Grand Forks, including her minor sister, at the time of Cisneros’ death.
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On Feb. 28, she was sentenced to four months in jail on a previous charge of using others’ identification to obtain prescription drugs in Altru Hospital in late October when she still was living with Cisneros.
