Prosecutors focus on California hit-and-run in cases against man charged with killing 5 in Minneapolis crash

Prosecutors want jurors to hear details of a 2018 hit-and-run crash in which Derrick J. Thompson struck and severely wounded a woman while fleeing police in California. In a court filing on Friday, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Paige Starkey writes that the incident bears “striking similarities” to a crash five years later in which five young women were killed in a high-speed crash in Minneapolis.

Thompson, the son of former DFL State Rep. John Thompson, is facing state charges of vehicular homicide and third-degree murder in connection with a June 16, 2023 crash. In a separate federal case, Thompson, 28, of Brooklyn Park, is also charged with federal narcotics and firearms crimes after police allegedly found fentanyl, cocaine and handgun in an SUV abandoned at the scene.

Sabiriin Ali, 17, Salma Abdikadir, 20, Sahra Gesaade, 20, Sagal Hersi, 19, and Siham Odhowa, 19, had spent the evening preparing for a friend’s wedding and were returning home in a Honda Civic when a rented Cadillac Escalade, with Thompson allegedly behind the wheel, T-boned their vehicle at high speed.

The SUV struck “with enough force to crush” the small car, which was pinned against the wall of the freeway overpass.

Prosecutors say Trooper Andy Guerra clocked the vehicle moving northbound at 95 mph, weaving around other vehicles along a stretch of I-35W where the posted speed limit is 55 mph. Guerra followed the Escalade, “but did not activate his lights or sirens; he did not want to attempt a traffic stop on city streets given the Escalade’s dangerous driving,” according to a government filing in the federal case. Guerra followed the Escalade to the Lake Street exit, and from about a block away, he saw the SUV “fly through a red light” and crash into the Civic.

The incident happened five months after Thompson was released early from a California prison while serving an eight-year sentence for a September 2018 crash in Montecito that left a pedestrian with injuries including a fractured pelvis, broken arm, head trauma and internal bleeding.

Thompson pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, evading police and narcotics sale conspiracy. According to court documents, California police found 17 pounds of marijuana and 205 cartridges of cannabis vape oil in Thompson’s car.

While evidence of past crimes is not automatically admissible at trial, evidentiary rules allow prosecutors to present such evidence if they can show that its relevant and would not prejudice jurors.

Starkey writes that in both the 2018 and 2023 incidents, Thompson drove recklessly to evade authorities while carrying large quantities of illegal drugs, and both times he left the scene “to escape legal accountability after his driving conduct caused accidents that left innocent people gravely injured or killed.”

Starkey adds that letting jurors know about Thompson’s past conviction is key to proving that he was driving the Cadillac. She notes that while Thompson was recorded on surveillance video renting the vehicle at MSP Airport, there is no footage that shows him exiting the SUV after the crash, and data that investigators recovered from the SUV’s computer indicates that a person was riding in the front passenger seat.

“The State anticipates that Defendant will claim that he was not the driver of the Cadillac,” Starkey writes, and Thompson’s “act in California is unique enough and similar enough to the charged offense that its admission would tend to make it more likely that Defendant was also the driver here.”

In a filing in the federal case, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ruth Shnider and Thomas Calhoun-Lopez argue similarly that placing Thompson “in the driver’s seat and proving the motive for his high-speed flight are thus central issues in the case.” While the collision was captured on surveillance video from a nearby building, Shnider and Calhoun-Lopez note that smoke from the crash and the distance of the surveillance camera make it impossible to see anyone exiting the Escalade.

“Plenty of suspects flee police; very few do so with such wanton disregard for safety that they repeatedly crash into innocent bystanders,” the federal prosecutors added. “Thompson’s actions in both cases thus reveal a uniquely heightened state of panic about being caught in possession of contraband.”

While Thompson’s attorney in the state case has not filed a response, Aaron Morrison, his federal defense attorney, argues that the 2018 crash is “highly prejudicial” and irrelevant to the case because “whether Mr. Thompson was the Escalade’s driver or was instead a passenger during the crash in question has no bearing on whether Mr. Thompson possessed the charged firearm and narcotics.”

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan set an Oct. 7 trial date in Thompson’s federal case. Thompson’s trial in Hennepin County is set to begin Dec. 2. In August, prior to adding murder charges, Hennepin County prosecutors offered Thompson a plea deal in which he’d serve a sentence ranging from 32 to 39 years.

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