After about a day of deliberations, a Hennepin County jury on Friday found a Brooklyn Park man responsible for a violent crash that killed five young women as they drove along Lake Street in Minneapolis.
Jurors convicted Derrick Thompson on all of the 15 counts with which Hennepin County prosecutors charged him: 10 counts of criminal vehicular homicide and five counts of third-degree murder.
The five were out shopping on Lake Street and getting henna tattoos the night before a friend’s wedding.
Thompson’s brother testified against him Defense attorney Tyler Bliss has said that his client’s brother, Damarco Thompson, was driving the SUV at the time of the crash.
Damarco Thompson told jurors that he went with Derrick to the car rental agency at Minneapolis–St.
A Brooklyn Park man was found guilty on Friday by a Hennepin County jury after roughly a day of deliberations of causing a violent crash that killed five young women as they were driving along Lake Street in Minneapolis.
Five counts of third-degree murder and ten counts of criminal vehicular homicide were among the 15 charges brought against Derrick Thompson by Hennepin County prosecutors, and jurors found him guilty on all of them.
Thompson, now 29, was accused by the prosecution of having just rented a Cadillac Escalade at the Twin Cities airport on June 16, 2023, and driving it north along Interstate 35W at over 100 miles per hour before pulling off at Lake Street. At the first intersection after the exit, 31st Street, he sped through a green light. However, at Lake, he ran a red light and slammed the three-ton SUV into the driver’s side of a much smaller Honda Civic, killing everyone inside.
Together with passengers Salma Abdikadir, 20, Sagal Hersi, 19, Siham Odhowa, 19, and Sabiriin Ali, 17, driver Sahra Gesaade, 20, passed away instantly. In addition to getting henna tattoos the night before a friend’s wedding, the five were shopping on Lake Street.
Thompson was at 116 mph when the collision occurred.
Prosecutors showed traffic camera footage of Thompson speeding on the interstate at almost twice the speed limit, swerving around other cars at the exit ramp, and hitting the Honda during the trial.
On Monday, Sgt. According to crash reconstructionist Kristofer Geiger’s testimony, Thompson drove onto city streets with a posted speed limit of 20 miles per hour and made no attempt to slow down. The Escalade “went airborne” at 31st Street, one block south of Lake Street, according to Geiger.
Geiger stated, when questioned by the prosecution, that the Escalade was traveling at 116 miles per hour approximately eight seconds prior to colliding with the Civic. Geiger testified that Thompson only depressed the brake pedal one second prior to impact, and the SUV’s data recorder revealed that the accelerator was 91 percent engaged, “almost to the floor,” three and five seconds prior to the collision.
Geiger said it was one of the worst crashes he had ever looked into in his career and estimated that the Escalade was traveling between 77 and 84 miles per hour at the time of the impact.
Geiger stated, “It was difficult to determine an accurate count of how many were in the vehicle due to the level of traumatic injuries to the bodies’ midsections.”.
Thompson’s brother gave a defamatory testimony.
Damarco Thompson, the brother of his client, was operating the SUV at the time of the collision, according to defense lawyer Tyler Bliss. Prosecutors, however, unexpectedly subpoenaed Damarco on Wednesday and asked Judge Carolina Lamas to compel him to testify. Nothing Damarco said on the witness stand could be used against him because he was forced to do so.
Damarco Thompson informed jurors that he accompanied Derrick to the Minneapolis–St. car rental agency. but that they each drove away in different cars from Paul International Airport on the day of the collision. In an interview with Assistant Hennepin County Attorney James Hanneman, Damarco stated that Derrick was the only person in the SUV when it collided with the Civic and that he never operated the Escalade that day.
Investigators discovered 2,000 fentanyl pills, cocaine, and a gun in the wrecked SUV. Derrick Thompson, the son of a former DFL State Representative, was found guilty by a federal jury in a separate trial held in October. John Thompson is a felon who possesses a firearm and carries a firearm in connection with a drug trafficking offense. He also has possession with intent to distribute fentanyl.
