Neal Zumberge

A Minnesota couple becomes the target of a shooting on their own front lawn. Police don't know if the shooter is still a threat to the neighborhood, so they're very cautious. He was absolutely refusing to surrender himself to the local police. Police, they're a bunch of coops. He had taken a stand that new bright police were somehow to blame. The investigation reveals a turbulent history between two neighbors. This was a feud that had been percolating for several years. There was a lot of hate there, there was a lot of anger. They began finding animal parts and animals in their driveway. It was sort of a head-filled McCoy's, if you will. But who was the real instigator in this feud that resulted in cold blooded murder? I got the shot and I'll say five, they were going to do something. Shoot, shoot, shoot. They just escalated as they both felt the need to exert control over the situation. The only way this situation was going to end was with one of them killing the other. He was getting closer to snapping. The suburb of New Brighton is known as one of the best places to live in Minnesota. It is a suburb just north of St. Paul, Minnesota. Lots of families, lots of schools, lots of parks, just a really good neighborhood. It's an area where people go to escape the hectic life of the inner city. But on the evening of May 5, 2014, this peaceful area becomes the scene of a terrifying crime. The 911 call came in from a woman, her name was Jennifer Damoral Clevin, and she reported that she and her partner Todd Stevens had just been shot by their neighbor. This officer's race to the scene, 911 operators keep Jennifer on the line. She explains that Neil Zumburg is their neighbor across the street. "I was talking to you guys, you would get me killed." New Brighton police officers arrive at the address and find Jennifer's partner Todd Stevens lying in the front yard, bleeding and unconscious. But they find themselves in a dangerous situation. They don't know if the shooter is still a threat to them or a threat to the victims or a threat to the neighborhood. They're very cautious. The urgent matter at hand is getting first aid to the victim who is in the front yard. That was difficult to do because there was still an ongoing threat from the suspect house. Officers barricade themselves behind a car with assault rifles while an EMT tries first to save Todd's life while waiting for backup. There was a gunshot wound to his face, there were a few others to his arm that they could see, but many of the ones were actually covered by his clothes, and so I don't believe it was apparent immediately how many gunshot wounds Todd suffered. "Is he dead or is he dead, please?" "He's trying to help me." "I'm shot too. I'm talking to him." They do start rendering aid and trying to give him CPR, but that did not last more than a minute or two. It was very apparent that he was no longer alive. 46-year-old Todd Stevens was a lifelong resident of New Brighton. He grew up there with his family, and like many in the area, saw no reason to ever leave. While it is a suburb of a major metropolitan city, there is a lot of nature, there's a nature path right by this neighborhood, and so there was a lot of wildlife in the area, and Todd really enjoyed that. "He was an outdoors, and he was like, you go hunting, you know, do all sorts of stuff outdoors." The only thing Todd loved more than the area's wildlife was its people. I met Todd around 2006, the guy would do anything for anybody, anytime. You know, if somebody he just met said I need help this week, and Todd would be over there to help him. "He's my dad's best friend, you know, so it's always over, always hanging out. He wouldn't make you laugh, that's for sure. I mean, especially as a young kid, I really loved him. He was more like an uncle-figured in me, you know." For most of his adult life, Todd worked physically demanding jobs. He'd started out in construction, but before long, Todd decided to make a switch to short haul trucking. "We worked for the same company. We were route drivers delivering restaurants and hospitals, their food. Todd loved his job, loved the people he delivered to, they loved him." Todd was also dedicated to his long-time partner, Jennifer Cleven. A single mother, Jennifer and her young son Ryan met Todd in 1996 through mutual connections. "She had come up from Texas at some point to visit, ended up staying?" They quickly fell for each other, and Todd invited Jennifer and her son to live with him. Todd treated Ryan like he was his own, teaching him how to camp and hunt. And for the next 18 years, Todd and Jennifer seemed like the perfect couple. Although she and Todd weren't married, they had been partners for a long time. Todd and Jennifer always took care of each other, and I think they loved it the way they were. They were always calling each other and contact with each other and knowing what's going on. "I'm happy with each other." Todd had lived in this neighborhood his entire life, and he really liked it and enjoyed it. He was social with many of the neighbors. They all described him as kind and helpful. "He was a jokester, and that's why I think people love to bottom because he just always was having fun and talking and joking around." And in 1997, new neighbors Neil and Paula Zumburg and their three children moved in across the street. Jennifer and Son and Neil and Paula's children were actually pretty good friends for a while, and the neighbors were pretty friendly with one another. They had family gatherings together, and their kids hung out together. But in 2002, the neighborly relationship began to turn sour when Neil suddenly forbade his son Jacob from visiting Jennifer's son Ryan. The neighbors talk about how he taught. We liked to drink, and he would get a little loud and rowdy sometimes, but no one had any problems with him. It sort of began to fray over a time period, over years, with Zumburgs concerned about what was happening inside Jennifer and Todd's house. Specifically, Todd's drinking, the behavior of that problem. is kind of where things deteriorated. For the first time, Todd found himself at odds with a neighbor. And now, after nearly a decade of tension, the feud has escalated to a shooting in their front yard. Less than 10 minutes after Jennifer called 911, Todd has been pronounced dead. Medics find Jennifer in the living room. She had significant gunshot injuries and required hospitalization. Jennifer was obviously upset and angry. She's telling them, "I told you he was going to do this. I told you this would happen. You didn't help us." Coming up, police engage intense negotiations. I'm not surrendering to the new brain, please. And investigators learn about the start of a deadly feud and claims of self-defense. The harder he pushed, the harder Todd Stevens pushed back. In the aftermath of a shooting that claimed the life of 46-year-old Todd Stevens, Minnesota police find themselves in a standoff with the alleged gunman, Neil Zumburg. They are quickly joined by over 20 officers from multiple agencies, including the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. It was a very tense situation for law enforcement. They knew they had two gunshot victims. One was dead. The shooter was in his own home. They needed to set up a perimeter. They didn't know how this situation was going to resolve. When police show up at the scene, it has the potential to either comment down or escalate the situation. With an individual like Neil Zumburg, there's a high potential that there's going to be a violent altercation because he sees himself as someone who needs to win. A SWAT team secures the area. But before police can make contact with Neil, he surprises them by calling 911. 911, March your emergency. Someone's shot outside my house. Okay, they need an ambulance. I'm sure they do. I'm not going to shoot the police. They can go help the guys. Are you the one that did the shooting? I'm not going to see anything. There's anybody else in the house with you. No, my wife has never done this. I told her it gets in a lot of the house. They didn't know if there was going to be more gunfire. They were kind of preparing for both situations. Should Neil open fire again and also coming up with a plan to get him into custody. I'm not surrendering to the move right. Please. Okay, where's the gun that's in the house right now? What's the difference with that man? Because I just want to make sure officers know so that it doesn't endanger you. So, well, you don't care about me. I care. We don't want anything to happen to you. I'm not going to shoot at the police. Please. There are lots of cooks. The fact that he was making demands, provided, I think, responding law enforcement officers with a hinge of discomfort. What are we getting ourselves into here? Okay. So, who would you surrender to? I don't know, Brampton County Sheriff. So, you will surrender to a Brampton County Sheriff? Yeah, I don't want the new bride and police to come here. I don't want to be taking the hell out of me. He had taken a stand at New Bright Police where it's somehow to blame for what was going on. Neil had a lot of distrust and disliked for the New Brighton Police Department. And I think he also to a large extent blamed them for the situation escalating to this point. Like gunshot victim Jennifer Cleven, Neil accuses them of ignoring problems between the two families. Every New Brighton police officer probably knew both these families based upon the last decade or so of what I would describe as a tumultuous relationship. Sort of had filled in the coyes, if you will. Neil and the Zumburg Household felt like they had made reports about Todd and Jennifer's conduct that they did not feel were resolved to their satisfaction. This wasn't a one-off argument where somebody lost their temper. This was a feud that had been sort of percolating for several years. Eventually, Neil agrees to turn himself over to local sheriffs. It took, I think, approximately 30 minutes to negotiate him leaving the house. In the scene, calms down and we're able to process and try to figure out forensically what happened here. This was not much of a food on it. Neil was the shooter getting him into custody, trying to interview him to get his side of the story and then processing the scene were the primary goals initially. They found the four shotgun cartridges outside of Neil's home. And then inside the home, police found the murder weapon, which was a 12-gauge shotgun. In the area where Neil's side, he left it. The shotgun is a browning semi-automatic, capable of holding four rounds plus another in the chamber. The damage to Todd and Jennifer's home indicates just how lethal the weapon can be. He was firing a triple-out buck with, I believe, eight pellets per round. If you did the math, there's probably 32 or close to that as many holes in that house. And in the ones that weren't counted in the house or didn't blow out windows or front screens or those sort of things were probably lodged into the dissedent Dan or the victim in this case. Todd Stevens remained at the scene for several hours so that we could document specifically the scene. While Neil is being processed and charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder, investigators check on Jennifer at the hospital. Jennifer had a through and through gunshot wound to the side of her abdomen. She had the significant injuries that required hospitalization. They weren't fatal, but they were significant. After receiving treatment for her wounds, police are hoping she can tell them exactly what happened that night. But first, they have to deliver some heartbreaking news. When she recovers, Jennifer tells detectives how their feud with Neil Zumber got started. How many years have you been neighbors? Jennifer says, after the Zumberks forbade their son from being friends with her then 14-year-old son Ryan, he decided to move back to Texas to live with his biological father. As empty nesters, Jennifer and Todd took up a new hobby. Todd Jennifer really liked to see deer, so they enjoyed when they would come by. Todd was an animal lover, you know. Even though he went hunting and stuff, he never cared if he shot anything. He just wanted to watch deer. Todd's deer feeder was a PVC pipe that he filled with corn. Deer really like corn. All birds seed, actually. They'll kind of eat anything in your yard. Jennifer says that's when their problems really began. But investigators still have another side to hear from. He felt he needed to respond from his perspective. He was doing what he had been pressed to do. It was just a lot of a visceral anger, both directions. Neil bishops said I couldn't take it anymore. They'd never anticipated that it was going to escalate to this point. How did this happen? While officers process Neil Sumber at the station, detectives in New Brighton, Minnesota are continuing to gather a statement from his neighbor, Jennifer Clevin, whose feud with Neil left her seriously injured and her partner dead of a gunshot wound. Always have problems like that. That's a poor now. I have been in it for 17 years. You always had a conversation with that. Neil was very upset. He claimed that because Todd and Jennifer fed the deer, there was an increased presence of deer in the neighborhood. He felt that that was a threat to the safety and welfare of the neighborhood. Neil feared that the deer would bring infected bugs to the area. Lion's Zs is passed on by ticks, typically carried by deer's. When a tick-carrying lion disease bites a human, they can be sick for a long period of time. It can affect their general responsiveness. They become very lethargic. They can become physically ill for long periods of time. But Jennifer and Todd both felt that there was their right to feed deer. They were not going to back away from it. In 2012, Neil started complaining to local officials. Neil complained to the city and they're writing about this. That's not incongruant with any ordinances or laws so they didn't take any action. That's a pretty insignificant complaint and there really is nothing for the police to do about it. But he was not going to let go of it. Tension between the neighbors continued to rise. And months later, Neil claimed his fears became reality. He said that he and his dog both got lion disease from the ticks that the deer carried that Todd and Jennifer were luring into the neighborhood. Neil claimed that he had to take reduced hours at work because of his lion disease. Ultimately, Neil lost his job. He ended up being stuck at home. Now the anger becomes completely focused on the neighbor. It seemed like Neil had become very fixated on Todd and Jennifer and he blamed them for his inability to find a job. He blamed them for getting lion disease. He blamed them for a lot of the problems in his life. Jennifer says in March 2012, something happened that foreshadowed the violence to come. Todd Stevens and Jennifer Cleven began finding animal parts and animals in their driveway. "I think I like the wrong. There's beds rolling." "Deadburn's my yard, a deer life, to be player, to love a deer." I remember going over to pick up Todd to go for a wheel and pulling his yard and there's two dead deer laying in his front yard that somebody shot and killed in his front yard in the middle of the night. It's just strange that nobody else had dead animals throwing in their front yard. It was upsetting to Todd and Jennifer as well as the neighbors. Todd and Jennifer made a report. They suspected that Neil was the one who killed those animals and put them there either as a sign or as a threat. The disturbing incidents continued over a period of six months. Jennifer and Todd made reports to the Department of Natural Resources, but Neil denied the accusations. "Think about the craziness of this that someone's killed an animal and put it in your yard to threaten you." "They were hoping to catch Neil putting these dead animals in their yard. Neil was very aware of the fact that Todd and Jennifer had put cameras up in their yard and that is when a lot of this behavior stopped." In October of 2012, Neil pleaded his case against the deer feeder to the entire neighborhood. "He circulated a letter, he zeroxed several copies of the same correspondence and fanned it out among the neighborhood." Neil talked in this letter about Todd, but he referred to him as Mr. Corn and talked about how Todd was feeding the deer and how dangerous it was. From Neil's perspective, he saw this as possibly generating support for his beliefs. The truth is, from the neighbor's perspective, it simply made it look like he was getting closer to snapping. At one point, Neil even put up a sign in their yard, come watch the deer eat, come watch the deer poop, talking about the absurdity of feeding animals and having them in their yard. I think that there was a conflict in personality and it just escalated as they both felt the need to exert control over the situation. These guys called the cops on each other multiple times and the cops came to the neighborhood. In the nine years before the shooting, law enforcement responded to calls from both houses 44 times. "So I told the cops he said he didn't tell me. Under time it's not that. We can't do anything about it. That's not going to reshame where I went. Of course, in fact, the one front is done by Colter. He said I'm scared of him." Well, little more than a year before the shooting, the court found that Neil had engaged in a pattern of harassing conduct against Jennifer and that a court order was necessary for her safety. Jennifer got her restraining order against Neil in 2013. The restraining order cooled things down for a while, but a week before the shooting, an incident seemed to reignite Neil's rage. Todd and Jennifer were at the bar in Spring Lake Park, Minnesota, which was a neighboring suburb, and they were there having some drinks in Plain Bingo. Also at the bar was Jacob Sumberg, Paula and Neil's son. And at the bar, Jennifer reported that Jacob confronted her and Todd. Some way Jacob saw his way of supporting his father. I feel like Dad's frustration had carried over onto his son. Jennifer says she immediately reported it to police who issued an arrest warrant. The police did go to Paula and Neil's home to try to locate and interview Jacob about what happened at the bar. Paula got very upset and kicked the police out of her house and told them to leave. So they issued the pickup and hold warrant for him. A week later on May 5th, she spotted Jacob at a restaurant and called authorities. Jacob was arrested and charged with assault. When Jennifer returned home around 8.30 pm, Paula Zumberg was there waiting. Jacob's arrest was perhaps the straw that may have broken the camel's back. And I was walking up to Paula. The wife said, "Walk now." She took my son and gel. I said Paula, I said, "Let's talk it over. Time heard heard. Tell them not to leave." He said I said, "I'll go back to you," he didn't. And then I said, "Nil, come on, come on, come on." And according to Jennifer, Paula was no innocent bystander. And Paula told him, "Neil, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot." The fact that Jennifer reported that Paula was telling Neil to keep shooting was something very critical to police because it was the first real piece of evidence they had to suggest that Paula might have been involved and part of the shooting. Coming up, Neil Zumberg tells his side of the story. And surveillance video sheds a new light on the crime. If you don't frame by frame, you can see the muzzle flash from the firearm that he's using. [MUSIC] Four hours after Todd Stevens was murdered, investigators go to the jail where Neil Zumberg is being held and take his statement. >> I want to build trust to the extent that I can with him. I think he's a smart educated man and he knows that there may be some trust issues with law enforcement. But we just want to make a sincere effort to get his version of the story. [MUSIC] >> All right, Neil. And we'd like to talk to you about what happened tonight. I kind of want to spurn John. I'm not a new bright man. I've worked for the State of Minnesota, right? Okay. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. What we'd like from you is an explanation. What am I going to do this? [MUSIC] This is all about deer basically. And we're not, not all about deer, deer and ants. [MUSIC] >> According to Neil, Todd and Jennifer were the real pests. >> They just made her like hell. I'm kind of with her. Like every weekend, we were like, oh no. She's guys were getting drunk and they'd be off here with guns. If she had guns on her sides. A new bright police know this. [MUSIC] And Neil viewed himself as someone who did what he needed to do. And wasn't initially apologetic for it. >> What is it today? What makes it today different? We need these other out-of-the-bays in the past 16 years. You could be with them. What makes it different? I don't just remember. Fear, my wife's crying. She can't sleep tonight. They're going after her kids in a minute. What am I going to do? [MUSIC] >> Neil says when they found out Jennifer had their son arrested, his wife hit a breaking point. [MUSIC] >> My son told him that I'm going to go give him a piece of my mind. He makes it in all that he's wearing back before it. I got shocked and out because I thought they were even a piece of me. >> He said he came out and he was keeping an eye on Todd to make sure his wife doesn't get shot. [MUSIC] >> Would you feel anything to me? Do you feel like her? Do you have a major? >> Well, he had his arms like this. And then he had them down like this. And then I just. I don't believe it. >> He thought Todd may have had a gun on his waistband and that that was not uncommon for Todd Stevens to wear a small caliber handgun. >> Neil says before he realized it, he'd already pulled the trigger. [MUSIC] [SOUND] >> This is happening. We're having a shot again for a long time. It's fully automatic. It just kept going up. It's never in the intended argument. It's always been come back. So your wife did a shoot through the screen and she had her strategy to move. Did she talk to you? She just put a dollar in that folder and get the whole out of the house. And she did. >> I bought her a long, long, long, long, long, long, long. [MUSIC] >> Police find Paula Zumburg at her mother's house. She was advised by counsel not to provide a statement to us. >> We filed a complaint against Paula for eating and abetting the murder and attempted murder of Todd and Jennifer. And once that complaint warrant was issued, Paula did turn herself in. Paula never said a word. >> With two significantly different versions of the story, investigators are hoping Todd and Jennifer's security cameras help determine what really happened. >> So there are four cameras in total at Todd Stevens' house. >> The video was grainy. This was 2014. Technology has come a long way since then. But it was not so grainy as we couldn't see what was happening. >> You could see their front yard, but you could mostly see the house across the street, the house. The video shows Jennifer arriving just before 8.30pm. You could very clearly see Jennifer come home in her car, and then you could see just a little bit of the top of her head as she was walking toward the front door. We were able to see Paula exit the home. [MUSIC] >> Paula had come down to the end of her driveway and the two women were exchanging words. Not very friendly. [MUSIC] >> So after the original altercation, Todd came out. Didn't say anything, but was just standing there. >> Nailed steps around to the side of the house, five different times to make sure there's nobody coming. >> So it wasn't until Paula had retreated back closer to their home, and Todd and Jennifer had both come down the front stairs of their house that Neil opened fire. And all of a sudden, boom, there's gunshots. [MUSIC] >> If you go frame by frame, you can see the muzzle flash from the firearm that he's using. We have Paula with visually indigital video, but we don't have her verbally saying, sure, I'm sure. [MUSIC] >> She doesn't drop to the ground. She doesn't run. And I can't imagine standing at the end of my driveway, hearing a gunshot behind me and standing perfectly still. So I think that you can draw conclusions from that if you'd like. [MUSIC] >> Investigators are inclined to agree with Jennifer. It looks like a setup. [MUSIC] >> It appears to be a premeditated planned execution of Todd Stevens. [MUSIC] >> I really believed in the theory of the case, and I believed that we had sufficient evidence to prove Paula's involvement. [MUSIC] So those were the charges that were taken to a trial. [MUSIC] So not only did I need to prove that Neil intentionally killed Todd and intentionally attempted to kill Jennifer, but also that that was done with premeditation. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> On August 11, 2014, three months after Todd Stevens was killed, Paula Zumber stands trial for aiding and abetting her husband in the crime. [MUSIC] Paula opted to wave a jury, and so we had a trial in front of a judge. And so the judge is the one who heard all of the evidence. [MUSIC] >> Jennifer is the prosecution's star witness, but unfortunately, there is nothing to corroborate her claims. [MUSIC] >> Jennifer would testify a trial that, you know, Paula was kind of off to the side, you know, on the drive way at the nail box. [MUSIC] >> But there wasn't enough evidence to convict her of aiding and abetting. And that's a tricky charge to prove, unless she had handed her husband, Neil, a loaded gun. >> Ultimately, Paula was acquitted of both charges and found not guilty. [MUSIC] >> Although charges against Paula don't stick, charges of first degree murder and attempted murder await her husband. And on August 12, 2015, Neil Zumberg's trial begins. >> The defense's theory was that Neil was justified in this shooting to protect his wife, Paula's wife. On the witness stand, Neil said that he could read Todd's lips and that Todd had made a threat to kill his wife. >> Neil said that he, as a child, had learned to read lips because he had a brother who was hearing impaired. And that that was a skill he had developed over time. And so he claimed that he could see from 145 feet away, Todd saying, I'm going to kill you to Paula. >> Neil did say that he thought Todd had a gun on his person and that he was reaching for it at some point during that altercation between the two women. [MUSIC] >> The evidence, however, doesn't back up Neil's claims of self-defense. >> When the police searched Todd's body, they found that he had a holster for a cell phone, but he did not have a gun on his possession. >> Neil testified that he went to pull up the gun, that kind of went off, that he hadn't fired in so long, that it just kept firing. >> When closing, I was arguing about the intentionality of the shooting. And so the fact that he pulled the trigger four separate times was important evidence that this was not just a one-off, his finger didn't just slip and pulled the trigger. So what I said to the jury is I said this was not a whoopsy, this was intentional. On the seventh day of trial, the jury is sent to deliberate. It takes them less than three hours to return with a verdict. Ultimately, the jury did return verdicts of guilty. One of the alternate jurors said you know if he could read lips from that far away, then why wouldn't he have been able to see that Todd didn't really have a gun? First degree, premeditated murder is the most serious criminal charge there is, and it's a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. At his sentencing, Neil drops another bombshell. Neil spoke to the court and admitted that he had not been fully truthful. He admitted that he did not actually know how to read lips, and it wasn't that the gun just kept going off, that he pulled that trigger on purpose. It was a shocking moment in covering the criminal justice system that a defendant would actually tell a judge that he had lied. Justice was served for Todd today, but we shouldn't be here today. We should not be here today. I have nothing to say to that man. All I could say to him is I don't forgive you. I never forgive you, and I hope you're right in hell. This was a really tragic case all the way around. Todd paid the ultimate price for this feud. Jennifer suffered the loss of her partner. She was shot herself. She had to relocate everything in her life change. The Zumburgs ended up selling their house to pay meals, criminal defense, and not only the two families who were directly impacted by death and imprisonment, think about the trauma to the neighbors, and that they had to endure this and that someone was shot and killed in broad daylight on his doorstep. Can you imagine trying to explain something like this to your kids? In the years since Todd's death, peace has returned to his new bright neighborhood, but it will never be the same without him. I think Todd would want to be remembered as a guy that worked hard, took care of his friends and his family in any way that he could. I mean, he didn't have a lot of money, but he would give us last $10 to anybody. And all the years I know him, that's all he wanted to do is help people. Both families sold their homes and moved out of the neighborhood, Nilo is currently serving a life sentence at Minnesota Correctional Facility, Oak Park Heights.