Delwayne W. Center appears in two booking photos in December 2023. (Hennepin County Jail)
A Minnesota man is behind bars after a sexual encounter involving fantasy and fetish aspects left another man dead, authorities say.
Delwayne W. Center, 40, stands accused of one count of murder in the third degree – by selling, giving or distributing a controlled substance, over the May death of Daniel J. Aldridge, 47.
Minnesota is one of only three U.S. jurisdictions with a third-degree murder statute still on the books. The maximum sentence for third-degree murder is 25 years in state prison and a $40,000 fine. Sentencing guidelines in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, however, recommend 12.5 years for a first-time third-degree murder offense.
The underlying incident occurred in an apartment with a view of Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis, according to a criminal complaint in the case obtained by the Star Tribune.
At around 11 a.m. on May 12, the defendant himself dialed 911 regarding an “unconscious male who was likely deceased,” the complaint reportedly says. Upon arrival at the apartment on 15th Street West, responding officers allegedly found Aldridge on the floor of a bedroom. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Center allegedly volunteered several details to law enforcement.
According to the complaint obtained by the paper, the defendant said he and the deceased man had agreed to meet at his apartment the afternoon before — at around 1 p.m. — after first communicating with one another on a dating app. Then, “the two engaged in sexual activities including bondage,” the complaint reportedly alleges.
Center allegedly told police that Aldridge was the one being constrained and that while the victim was tied up, he injected him with methamphetamine from a syringe as “part of the roleplay,” according to the complaint. The defendant stressed the dose administered to the other man was the same he would have typically used on himself. At some point, however, Aldridge allegedly sought to escape from his constraints — but Center kept him confined, the complaint alleges.
Eventually, Center injected Aldridge with a second dose of meth, he allegedly admitted. Then, the victim started to have a “concerning reaction.” This upset the alleged killer because the tied up man “could not handle his drugs,” according to the criminal complaint obtained by Bring Me The News, a Minnesota-based online news website.
Aldridge would go on to pass out on the floor of Center’s apartment, police allege. The defendant allegedly said he heard “gurgling” and saw the presence of vomit on his mouth, but declined to check on the dying man — instead he went to bed, the complaint alleges.
After waking up, Center told police Aldridge was “motionless, cold and appeared to have ‘rigor mortis,”” the complaint says.
The defendant did not immediately call law enforcement, according to police. First, Center admitted, he watched some TV. Then, after realizing the growing smell, he got concerned that he would “get in trouble for buying drugs,” according to the complaint. So, he started to clean up, getting rid of all the remaining drugs and paraphernalia, police say.
It would be five months before the local medical examiner’s office would find Aldridge’s death was a homicide due to an overdose.
The defendant appeared in Hennepin County District Court on Wednesday of this week. He is currently being detained in lieu of $500,000 bail. He is next slated to appear in court on Jan. 24, 2024.
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