MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The man convicted in the 1999 killing of convenience store clerk Katie Poirier is now in a medium-security prison in Faribault.

Donald Blom was shifted in February from a maximum-security prison in Oak Park Heights.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sarah Fitzgerald said the agency doesn't comment on why specific inmates are transferred for security reasons. But she says in general that security levels are based on factors such as an inmate's security risk, the safety of staff and other inmates and medical needs of the inmate.

The prison includes a unit for geriatric inmates.

Blom, now 68, confessed to strangling the 19-year-old Poirier and burning her body in a pit on his property in Moose Lake.

He is serving a life sentence.

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