Duluth man pleads guilty in mother's East Hillside killing

Nathan Douglas Davin has admitted in St. Louis County District Court that he killed his mother in her East Hillside home, bringing a yearlong homicide case out of the fact-finding phase and into sentencing. The 47-year-old Duluth man pleaded guilty on June 8 to second-degree murder with intent, not premeditated, in the August 16, 2025, death of Mae Dean Davin, 74.

Police were called to the 1500 block of North 9th Avenue East after a report of a death at the home. When officers arrived, they found Nathan Douglas Davin with blood on his hands and Mae Dean Davin in a recliner with a gunshot wound to her face. Investigators also recovered a spent pistol casing near the victim, two guns in the house, and ammunition in Davin’s room that matched the bullet recovered in the living room.

A recorded interview later captured Davin saying, “I killed my mother.” Later court reporting said he told the judge he was heavily intoxicated and did not remember the shooting, which is why the plea was described as a Norgaard basis plea. Chief Judge Leslie Beiers presided over the hearing in case 69DU-CR-25-2700.

The guilty plea matters because it resolves the question of guilt without forcing a murder trial, with its testimony, evidence disputes and the prospect of surviving relatives reliving the killing in open court. It also closes off months of uncertainty for neighbors in East Hillside, where the case unfolded on a familiar residential block and quickly became one of Duluth’s most closely watched violent-crime prosecutions.

The plea does not end the case. Under Minnesota law, second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 40 years, and the final term will be decided at sentencing. That hearing is tentatively scheduled for July 16 in St. Louis County District Court in Duluth, where the court will determine how many years Davin serves for the killing of his mother.

For St. Louis County prosecutors, the plea secures a conviction in a case that began with a fatal call to a Duluth home and ended with a defendant’s admission in court. The next official step is sentencing, and it will set the punishment for one of the city’s most serious recent domestic homicide cases.