He was not the driver. That’s what Derrick Thompson’s attorney subtly introduced to jurors Thursday as Thompson’s murder trial got underway in the south Minneapolis crash that killed five young women nearly two years ago.
Although defense attorney Tyler Bliss in his opening statements did not give the name of who he will argue was the driver, a court document pins the blame on Thompson’s brother, Demarco John Thompson, in a one-page notice of defense Bliss filed in court Tuesday, listing him as an “alternative perpetrator.”
“The question of tragedy is not what this trial is about,” Bliss told jurors. “The question presented here in this court is whether or not the state can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that my client drove that vehicle, and if he had the specific mental state to commit murder, to commit homicide. And, ladies and gentlemen, they simply cannot meet that burden.”
Derrick John Thompson (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)
Prosecutors say that Derrick Thompson was driving 95 mph on Interstate 35W in a rented Cadillac Escalade SUV, passing a Minnesota State Trooper, exiting on Lake Street, and then running a red light at Second Avenue and crashing into the victims’ Honda Civic still at a high rate of speed just after 10 p.m. June 16, 2023.
Pronounced dead at the scene were Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park; Sabiriin Mohamoud Ali, 17, of Bloomington; Sahra Liban Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center; Sagal Burhaan Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis, and Siham Adan Odhowa, 19, of Minneapolis. They were returning from preparing for a friend’s wedding.
“These five young women, between the ages of 17 and 20, lost their lives due to the act of another that was shockingly reckless, incredibly selfish and unspeakably foolish,” Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Joseph Paquette told jurors.
Thompson, the 29-year-old son of a former St. Paul state representative, was originally charged with 10 counts of criminal vehicular homicide for allegedly operating a motor vehicle in a grossly negligent manner and leaving the scene of an accident. In September, prosecutors added five counts of third-degree murder, which is defined in state statute as “perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life.”
While hearing evidence in the case, Paquette told jurors, “ask yourself, how dangerous were the defendant’s actions? What was his mindset when he did the things that the evidence shows he did in this case? Did the defendant flee the scene of the crash, and did his actions demonstrate an indifference to the loss of human life that he caused?”
In November, Thompson turned down a plea offer from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office that called for a prison term between 32½ and nearly 39 years for pleading guilty to five counts of criminal vehicular homicide.
A month earlier, a federal jury found Thompson, of Brooklyn Park, guilty of federal drug and weapons charges connected to the crash after more than 2,000 fentanyl pills and a Glock 40 semiautomatic handgun were found inside the Cadillac after the crash. A sentencing date has not been set.
Jury selection began Tuesday at the Hennepin County courthouse and wrapped up Thursday afternoon. Judge Carolina Lamas is presiding over the case, which has shaken Minnesota’s Somali community and attracted a high level of public interest and national media coverage.
Lamas is allowing one TV news camera to record the trial, with the video footage to be shared with other media outlets. She denied requests for a livestream. A still photographer is also permitted in the courtroom, which on Thursday overflowed with family and friends of the victims. A second courtroom was opened up to accommodate everyone.
‘They never stood a chance’
Paquette read the names and ages of the five victims at the start of the state’s opening statement. He then played a short clip of the crash, which was caught on video surveillance. What followed in the courtroom was loud gasps from the gallery. One woman got up and left, returning a short while later with a box of tissues.
“They never stood a chance,” Paquette said. “The defendant t-boned a Honda Civic. What resulted isn’t sufficiently described as a crash or a collision. It was an explosion. The Honda Civic was damaged beyond all recognition. No one from that vehicle could have survived. And no one did.”
Paquette told jurors they will hear from several witnesses who saw Thompson shortly after the crash. Homeowner Dorinda Pacheco saw him limping past her Second Avenue house, then cut through a neighbor’s yard and go down the alley toward a McDonald’s parking lot, Paquette said.
Thompson soon asked Carolyn Stauffer if he could use her cellphone, and she let him do so. He made a call and asked the person on the other end of the phone to come and pick him up from a Taco Bell parking lot, according to Paquette.
After Thompson was arrested near the fast-food restaurant, he denied involvement in the crash and said his injuries were “old.” He then said he had fallen earlier in the night, the charges say.
“This was an immediate red flag to officers, because they could tell that this was obviously a new injury,” Paquette said.
On the night of
The five women had just gotten done preparing for their friend’s wedding, which was scheduled for the next day. They went shopping. A few got henna tattoos.
Meanwhile, Thompson was at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where Paquette said he was dropped off by his brother and rented the black Escalade from Hertz.
“He’s seen clearly on surveillance video driving away from the facility in the Escalade with no other occupants,” Paquette said. “He then makes his way from the airport and eventually onto highway 35 headed north.”
Minnesota State Trooper Andres Guerra saw Thompson speeding and, before he could catch up or turn on the squad’s emergency lights or sirens, Thompson “cut across all lanes of traffic” and exited the interstate, Paquette said.
“After the crash, as you saw, both vehicles were launched north of the intersection and rolled end over end,” he said. “The defendant crawled out of the Escalade right in front of the home of a woman named Dorinda Pacheco.”
On the ground near the totaled vehicles, officers found the Hertz rental agreement that listed Thompson as the driver and noted the SUV had been rented just under a half-hour before the crash, Paquette said.
“You’re also going to hear evidence during this trial that the defendant’s brother, Demarco, his DNA, was possibly found in one location of the vehicle,” Paquette said. “But Demarco was never seen inside of the vehicle, and it is an open question whether he ever even entered the vehicle at all.”
Bliss, Thompson’s attorney, said Thursday, “When the dust settles, the smoke clears, you’ll see multiple doors to this vehicle opened. You will see the DNA of multiple people in this car who are seen renting the vehicle 35 minutes before this occurs.”
Earlier ruling
The prosecution was dealt a setback last week when the state court of appeals affirmed Lamas’ ruling that prosecutors cannot introduce evidence from Thompson’s 2018 crash in Montecito, Calif., in which he fled from officers in a vehicle, struck a pedestrian and left the scene on foot. The victim was placed in an induced coma and she had to undergo six surgeries within eight days of the crash.
Thompson pleaded guilty in Santa Barbara County District Court in 2020 to charges of “evading an officer (and) causing injury, leaving the scene of an accident (that caused) injury/death.” He was released from prison about six months before the Lake Street crash.
The state sought to introduce evidence from that case to prove Thompson knew that his actions in Minneapolis were “eminently dangerous” to others and that he “acted with a depraved mind” — the key elements of a third-degree murder charge.
The appeals court said in its May 19 ruling that while the two car crashes both involved reckless driving and caused serious injury, “this commonality is too general” in showing a pattern of behavior.
Police looking for hit-and-run driver who injured 2 pedestrians in Falcon Heights
Man fatally shot in St. Paul ID’d as 20-year-old
Crypto crime spills over from behind the screen to real-life violence
Pair sentenced in human smuggling case that left Indian family dead on Minnesota border
Angry with electrical utility, Iron Range official cuts wire, knocking out power to 3 towns
In its 19-page opinion, the appeals court ruled that Lamas did not abuse her discretion in excluding the evidence from the California crash, while also acknowledging the decision “significantly reduced the likelihood of a successful prosecution of Thompson for charges of third-degree depraved-mind murder.”
Testimony from ex-girlfriend
The state’s first witness was Kanitra Walker, Thompson’s former girlfriend, who testified that Thompson called her from the hospital, where was recovering from his injuries, and said “he was going a little fast and everything just happened so fast.”
She said he never made a statement about his brother or anyone else being with him at the time of the crash.
The trial will resume Friday and is expected to last into late next week.
Thompson’s father, John Thompson, was a first-term lawmaker representing St. Paul’s East Side when he was defeated in the DFL primary in August 2022 in the wake of a number of controversies, which included questions about his official residence following a July 2021 traffic stop in St. Paul.
