Charge: Unlicensed driver admits to hit-and-run that injured woman on New Year’s in Minneapolis

An unlicensed motorist admitted to police that he was the driver who seriously injured a woman in a hit-and-run crash on New Year’s Day in Minneapolis, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday.

Maurice Ladale Carter, 26, of St. Paul was charged with criminal vehicular operation, leaving the scene, in connection with the crash shortly before 2 a.m. Jan. 1 near 4th and University avenues NE.

Carter remains jailed in lieu of $75,000 bail and is due back in court on Feb. 12. A message was left with his attorney seeking a response to the allegations.

A state Department of Public Safety spokesman said Carter was driving at the time of the crash without a license, which has been revoked since 2021. Also, court records in Minnesota show he has been convicted once each for driving while his license was revoked, drunken driving and driving while on his cellphone.

Family members have identified the victim as 26-year-old Michaela Howk. She grew up in New Ulm, Minn., and recently moved to Minneapolis from Nashville for a new job at Children’s Minnesota hospital in Minneapolis, cousin Nate Bauer wrote on an online fundraising page that was started to help with her medical bills and rehabilitation.

“Michaela will require ongoing medical care, rehabilitation, and extensive physical therapy,” Bauer wrote.

On Jan. 8, police found the car that Carter was driving when he struck Howk and then collected DNA and other evidence from it, according to a search warrant affidavit.

According to the complaint and the affidavit:

Police arrived at the scene and saw an unconscious Howk on the pavement in the middle of University Avenue. Emergency medical responders took her to HCMC in critical condition. Her injuries included fractures to her pelvis, lower spine, leg bones and face near her eyes. She also suffered a traumatic brain injury and bleeding on the brain.

Traffic camera video captured the car traveling on University when it abruptly swerved near the intersection with 4th Avenue NE. into the opposite lanes. Moments later, other vehicles also swerved around Howk’s body in the street.

Another traffic camera picked up the car at Hennepin and University avenues NE. and identified it as a dark-colored Dodge Avenger with severe damage to its windshield.

On Jan. 2, a man called police to say he was a passenger in the car that hit Howk, and he identified Carter as the driver. The passenger said he was asleep in the car until the crash awakened him.

The police license plate reader system led investigators a week later to the car, parked at the intersection of 23rd Avenue and California Street NE. in Minneapolis, about 1½ miles north of the crash scene.

The car had fresh damage to its windshield, hood and grille, “all of which are consistent with a pedestrian crash,” the affidavit read.

On Tuesday, Carter admitted in a phone call with a police investigator that he was the driver who hit Howk. He surrendered to police Wednesday.