4 October 2024
SUPERIOR — Robert Thomas West, 44, of South Range, was sentenced in Wisconsin Thursday for his part in dismembering the body of Ricky Balsimo Jr. in June 2021. The 11-year sentence will run concurrently with the 15-year sentence West is already serving in Minnesota
“Few crimes are more grotesque … than treating a person like a piece of garbage by mutilating, dismembering and literally ripping apart a deceased victim’s body,” Douglas County Circuit Court Judge George Glonek said Thursday. “It is a crime that truly shocks the conscience.”
To know that a loved one’s body has been so callously desecrated, Glonek said, adds an unimaginable layer of pain and trauma for the family.
Appearing by phone, West pleaded no contest to one count of party to the crime of mutilating a corpse and a separate charge of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, both felonies.
On the first charge, West was sentenced to seven years of confinement and four years of extended supervision.
On the drug charge, he was sentenced to two and a half years of confinement and one year of extended supervision. The Wisconsin charges run consecutively, but they run concurrently with the longer sentence he is already serving in Minnesota after he was found guilty of being an accomplice to second-degree murder and interference with a dead body.
The sentences were part of a plea deal reached between Minnesota and Wisconsin with the understanding that West would cooperate with the prosecution, according to Douglas County District Attorney Mark Fruehauf.
West did testify in the Minnesota trial of Jacob Colt Johnson, 38, of Superior, who is serving a 40-year sentence in Minnesota after being found guilty of murder.
Balsimo was fatally shot in a moving car in the St. Paul area by Johnson on Father’s Day 2021. Johnson then drove the body to a camper in rural Douglas County, where the dismemberment took place. Balsimo’s body was placed in buckets and totes with cement and dumped off a boat into Lake Superior in Grand Portage, Minnesota.
Johnson was sentenced March 5 in Douglas County Circuit Court to seven and a half years of confinement and five years of extended supervision for his role in the dismemberment.
West did not physically assist in the dismemberment, according to court documents, but it was his idea, he found the spot, purchased additional tools for the work and cleaned up the scene.
“Mr. West actively helped Jacob Johnson get away with murder,” Fruehauf said.
Even after the tote and pails were dropped into Lake Superior, West kept the truth from the family.
Balsimo’s sister, Raquel Turner, said West caused more trauma for the family.
While the family was searching for Balsimo, she said West tried to point them in the wrong direction.
“That man drove my father around in the same truck he took my brother’s dismembered remains out to Grand Portage in,” Turner said.
“He knew exactly where he was, and he knew we were looking for him,” Turner continued. “And at that time, Jake (Johnson) was incarcerated, so he was not in danger.”
Felony counts of harboring/aiding a felon and possession of a firearm by a felon and a misdemeanor count of possessing drug paraphernalia were dismissed but read into the record. West asked for an explanation of that term, questioning if that meant the charges would come up in a job search. Glonek told him there’s no criminal conviction on those offenses.
“He’s here making plans for his life and his future. I don’t get that, my boy don’t get that,” said Balsimo’s mother, Kim Balsimo, prior to sentencing.
“I’m missing him a lot,” she said. “No love, no hugs, no calls, no smiles.”
Balsimo’s father, Richard Balsimo Sr., told the court he felt between five and 10 additional people could have been charged as party to the crime.
Fruehauf said there have been no additional referrals from law enforcement in connection to the incident. The county attorney said he reviewed the two trial transcripts and consulted with law enforcement and prosecutors in Minnesota.
“After my review, I do not believe there is presently sufficient evidence to charge anyone else,” he said.
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