Man charged in gruesome fatal attack of woman at Shakopee intersection in front of onlookers

A 42-year-old man was charged Friday with beheading a 56-year-old woman in front of onlookers at a Shakopee intersection.

Alexis Saborit was charged in Scott County District Court with second-degree intentional murder in connection with the attack with a large knife on America M. Thayer, of Shakopee, that was witnessed by others at the intersection of 4th Avenue and Spencer Street at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Saborit, of Shakopee, remains jailed ahead of a court appearance Friday afternoon. He has yet to secure an attorney.

Court records show that Saborit's criminal history in Minnesota includes a domestic assault conviction in neighboring Carver County for assaulting Thayer in 2017. In that gross misdemeanor case, according to the criminal complaint, Thayer was pinned to the ground by Saborit next to a house in Chaska.

The woman told police she and Saborit had been dating for about seven years. She said he was angry because Saborit thought she was talking to another man at a bar that night.

According to the criminal complaint and a search warrant affidavit filed in connection with Thayer's death:

County emergency dispatch notified police that a body with no head was pulled out of a car belonging to Thayer and that a suspicious man was walking in a nearby alley.

Police arrived to find Thayer headless on the ground next to her bloodied car with doors open on both sides; her head was a foot away from her body. Nearby in a residential yard was a sheath for a machete-style knife.

Another officer searching an alley a few blocks away located a knife, shirt and bloody shoes in a recycling bin.

Several people nearby saw the grisly details of the attack. One witness was a few cars behind Thayer's and saw Saborit make a hitting motion while sitting behind the wheel before throwing something toward 4th Avenue. The witness then saw Saborit drag something out of the car that looked like a body.

Police also viewed video recorded by a witness through a residential window that appeared to showed Saborit pull Thayer out of the car into the street and then pick up the head by its hair.

Saborit was arrested about 1½ miles from the scene and about three blocks from the TraveLodge Hotel, where he was staying.

At the time of the attack, Saborit was missing a court hearing in Scott County in connection with felony charges alleging that he set fire to his second-story apartment during a confrontation with police in Shakopee. The charges say he had been at the Pullman Club Nov. 9 and was smashing car windows outside the bar with a baseball bat.

At one point during that earlier standoff with police, Saborit brandished a machete, which he ultimately threw to the ground.

Smoke from the fire kept building, which forced Saborit to jump from a second-story window. Officers overcame brief resistance from Saborit and arrested him.

Court records in the domestic assault case from 2017 said Saborit has a domestic abuse conviction from 2011 in Louisiana.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482