A judge sentenced a man with a long history of mental illness to 30½ years in prison Friday in the “vicious” fatal stabbing of a housemate at a mental-health group home in West St. Paul nearly five years ago. In handing down the maximum sentence, Dakota County District Judge Michael Mayer noted how state statute gives the Minnesota Department of Corrections the authority to determine through an evaluation whether John C. Adams II, who is under a civil commitment for being mentally ill and dangerous, serves the time at Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter or in prison. John C. Adams II (Dakota County Sheriff’s Office) A Dakota County jury in September convicted Adams, 43, of second-degree murder in the Feb. 17, 2020, random attack on 68-year-old David Eugene Rahn, who was found dead with stab wounds to his face, neck, back and upper extremities. “It was a vicious assault,” Mayer said Friday. “I think there were 141 stab wounds. And he’s crying out for help and the door was blocked so nobody could go in and assist him with what was happening.” Adams was first civilly committed as mentally ill and dangerous out of Hennepin County in October 2000, according to court records. At the time of the murder, he was on a provisional discharge from the state hospital since November 2018, when he moved into the state-run group home. The provisional discharge was revoked after the murder and he was returned to the state hospital under an indeterminant civil commitment. Criminal court proceedings were suspended in May 2020, when a medical evaluation found Adams was incompetent to stand trial. Proceedings resumed in October 2023 when he was deemed competent following years of treatment at the state hospital. ‘Something isn’t right’ According to the criminal complaint, a staff member heard a disturbance in Rahn’s bedroom and then Rahn screaming for help. The staff member tried to get inside, but Adams blocked the door and said it was “okay.” While on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, the staff member said that it had become quiet in Rahn’s room and that “something isn’t right.” When the first responding officer arrived at the group home at 1546 Christensen Ave. shortly after 4 a.m., he saw a shirtless man — later identified as Adams — running from the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses building across the street and into the home. The parking lot of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall across the street from 1546 Christensen Ave. in West St. Paul, where a man was fatally stabbed early Monday, Feb. 17, 2020. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press) Officers and medics gave CPR to Rahn, but he was pronounced dead. His injuries also included at least 20 knife wounds to one of his hands, which were consistent with defensive wounds, and blunt force trauma to his head. Adams, who was in his bedroom, initially told officers that Rahn had “busted into his room” and attacked him. They wrestled, Adams claimed, before he ran and grabbed a knife to defend himself. Adams said he threw the knife into a garbage can near the Jehovah’s Witnesses building. Officers found a bloody, badly bent serrated knife in a white plastic bag that had electrical tape around the top of it. Bloody gloves were also found. During an interview at the police station, Adams’ story changed. He said that when he got up to use the bathroom, he saw Rahn standing in Rahn’s doorway holding a knife. He said Rahn told him to come inside, which he did, and that Rhan began stabbing himself. Sentencing arguments At Friday’s hearing, Adams’ attorney, assistant public defender Shawn Webb, argued for a downward dispositional departure and a stayed prison sentence to supervised probation so Adams can remain at the state hospital. “Having him in a locked facility where he’s receiving the treatment that his psychiatric professionals say is needed is the best thing for safety, for him and for everybody else,” Webb said. Under that sentence, Adams could end up back in a group home if the Minnesota Department of Human Services were to grant another custody reduction in the civil commitment, Assistant Dakota County Attorney Stephen Grego said in the state’s argument for the maximum 367-month sentence. 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The judge said he agrees with the state and the pre-sentence investigation that the aggravating factors outweigh any mitigating circumstances in the case. “The problem here is that public safety would not be protected by you being placed on probation and put back at that facility,” he told Adams. “(The state) tried that, and that’s why David is dead.” Adams will be given credit for the nearly five years he’s been in custody.