Murder charges were added Monday in the case against a motorist who authorities say had a blood-alcohol level more than four times the legal limit to drive when he plowed into a St. Louis Park bar patio on Labor Day weekend, killing two people and injuring nine others.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said video surveillance at Park Tavern supports two counts of third-degree murder against Steven Frane Bailey, 56, of St. Louis Park, for the Sept. 1 killing of Kristina Folkerts and 30-year-old Gabriel Quinn Harvey.
Kristina Folkerts and Gabe Harvey. (Courtesy of GoFundMe)
Folkerts, who died at the scene of blunt-force injuries, was a 30-year-old mother of three children from St. Louis Park who was working as a server at the time of the crash.
Harvey, a 30-year-old from Rosemount, was a health unit coordinator at nearby Methodist Hospital. He was at the restaurant with several hospital workers celebrating a colleague’s last nursing shift. He died that night at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
According to the attorney’s office, prosecutors did not yet have the surveillance video at the time of the original Sept. 3 charges, although references to the video were included in police reports.
Bailey still faces the previously filed charges of criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation in connection with the crash.
Prosecutors often charge multiple counts if applicable to give the jury options, or to use as bargaining tools during plea negotiations.
According to state statute, a person commits third-degree unintentional murder for “perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life.” The charge carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, with a presumptive sentence between 10 to 15 years.
Four Methodist Hospital nurses were among the injured. One was treated and released with minor injuries the day of the crash, while two others were in serious condition and one was in fair condition, a hospital spokesman said Friday.
Prosecutors: He hit two cars first, sped away
According to the attorney’s office, the surveillance video shows Bailey’s BMW turn right from Louisiana Avenue onto Oak Leaf Court and then turn right into the near-capacity Park Tavern parking lot. Several people are walking in the area, and other vehicles are driving within the parking lot throughout the incident.
The video shows that Bailey would have had a clear view of the patio, tables, umbrellas and the numerous individuals seated outside from the time he pulled into the lot and throughout his course of travel.
Bailey passed several parked cars, then stopped briefly after passing an empty parking space on his passenger side. He then backed up and hit a parked car with the rear end of his car. He drove away.
Within seconds, Bailey can be seen on video accelerating at a high rate of speed in what appears to be an attempt to flee the scene, according to the attorney’s office. As he accelerated through the parking lot, a black SUV turned into the area where Bailey was driving. He appeared to swerve slightly in an attempt to avoid the SUV. Bailey’s vehicle then hit the rear driver’s side of the SUV without slowing down and continued to accelerate straight toward the patio.
Bailey then accelerated past 11 parking spaces and plowed his car through a metal fence and into the patio seating area, striking occupied tables and multiple people. He continued to drive “all the way through the full length of the patio without braking” and did not slow down until his car “came to an abrupt and violent halt” when it hit several boulders and the base of a steep incline, the attorney’s office said.
Steven Frane Bailey (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)
When police arrived, Bailey was still in his SUV. As officers approached him they allegedly heard him on the phone saying, “I hit the gas instead of the brake and went right through a thing” and “I’m probably going to jail,” according to the Sept. 3 criminal complaint.
Bailey “appeared calm but was slow to respond to officers’ directions … (his) speech was slurred, and his eyes were bloodshot and watery. As he exited the vehicle, (Bailey) was unsteady on his feet and fell to his knees.”
In addition, he made several “spontaneous” statements such as saying when he was told they were going to perform a field sobriety test he said, “You don’t need to do fields. I know what I did.”
A preliminary breath test showed his blood-alcohol content was 0.325. The legal limit to drive in Minnesota is 0.08.
When he was booked into Hennepin County jail and told he was being held on criminal vehicular homicide charges, Bailey allegedly said, “You got to be kidding me” and “My life’s pretty much (expletive) now, isn’t it?”
Prior DWIs
Minnesota court records show that Bailey has two previous drunken driving convictions: a fourth-degree misdemeanor DWI in Waseca County in 2014 and a third-degree gross misdemeanor DWI in Hennepin County in 2015.
Bailey remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail without conditions, or $500,000 with conditions. He’s scheduled to return to court for an Oct. 1 hearing.
Bailey’s attorney, Tom Sieben, has not responded to a request Monday for comment on the upgraded charges.
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