startribune – A northern Minnesota artist admitted in court Wednesday that he fatally crushed his wife with a 17-foot-tall totem pole they were carving, a murder his accusers say was fueled by infidelity and deceit. Carl Muggli, 51, pleaded guilty in Koochiching County District Court to killing 61-year-old Linda Muggli in November 2010 at the couple’s home south of International Falls. The husband had tried to convince authorities that the 700-pound pole accidentally fell out of a cradle and onto his wife of 24 years. But about a week after Linda Muggli’s death, a tipster told the Sheriff’s Office about Facebook entries between Muggli and a woman in Alabama that were “very intimate in nature.” Investigators also reported that they were unable to recreate the alleged accident. “This whole thing is a tragic occurrence,” defense attorney Charles Hawkins said Wednesday. He explained that his client chose to plead guilty to second-degree unintentional murder because “he did not want to put the family, his family or himself through any more misery.” Muggli had been charged with first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree intentional murder and his trial had been scheduled to begin Monday. He remains in the county jail awaiting sentencing on Feb. 4. Hawkins said Muggli faces a sentence of 12 1/2 to 15 years in prison, with the possibility of supervised release for the last third of that time.

So let’s get this straight: if you kill your wife with a 700lb block of Native American heritage, LIE under oath to the cops about the murder, then come back and admit that it was on purpose, you only get 8 years in jail with good behavior? Remarkable. International Falls, Minnesota — you should be the murder capital of the United States.

If Chief Death Carvings here pulled this stunt in PA or Texas or any number of other states, he’d be looking at 25 to life without question. Whittling dreamcatchers out of prison soap and toothbrush bristles for loose cigarettes and commissary Ramen. He’d be spending the next 2-3 decades using that push broom ‘stache to move strawberry preserve around the asshole of some maximum security Nasty Nate, not kicking his feet up in 9 years carving spirit animals while getting his wigwam sucked by his Alabama mistress.

The main moral here: murder your spouse in Minnesota.

PS – The couple owned totempoles.net.