California evidence ruled inadmissible in Derrick Thompson’s trial in crash that killed 5 women in Minneapolis

The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday dealt a blow to the pursuit of murder convictions by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office against Derrick John Thompson in the deaths of five young Somali women in a car crash two years ago.

The Attorney’s Office was attempting to include evidence from Thompson’s previous criminal conviction in California in the upcoming trial, arguing similarities in the two crimes showed a pattern of behavior.

After a Hennepin County judge ruled the evidence inadmissible, the Attorney’s Office appealed. In a 19-page opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court ruling.

Thompson’s trial is set to begin next week on several counts of third-degree murder and criminal vehicular homicide. Charges allege he was driving a rented Cadillac Escalade 95 mph on Interstate 35W in 2023 when a state trooper began following him. Thompson took the Lake Street exit in Minneapolis, maintained his speed through a red light and crashed into a car.

Inside that car were Sabiriin Ali, 17, of Bloomington; Sahra Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center; Salma Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park; Sagal Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis, and Siham Adam, 19, of Minneapolis.

They were preparing for a friend’s wedding the next day. All five were killed instantly, sending shock waves through Minnesota’s Somali community.

Thompson, the son of former Democratic state Rep. John Thompson, allegedly fled the scene before being arrested. Police found a loaded Glock pistol and more than 2,000 fentanyl pills among other drugs in the Escalade. A federal jury found Thompson guilty of illegal possession of a firearm and intent to distribute fentanyl last year. A sentencing date for that conviction has not been set.

In 2020, Thompson pleaded guilty to three felonies in Santa Barbara County District Court in California.

That conviction stemmed from a 2018 case where Thompson rented a car, sped away from a police stop, exited the highway, hit a woman with his car, pinned her against a retaining wall and fled the scene on foot. Police found 17½ pounds of marijuana and $20,000 in cash in the rental car.

The woman hit by Thompson was left with a fractured pelvis, broken arm and ribs, head trauma and internal bleeding. She survived after being placed in a medically induced coma and undergoing eight surgeries.

Thompson was sentenced to eight years in prison and released in three. Six months after being released, he allegedly caused the crash in Minneapolis.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office initially brought 10 felony counts of criminal vehicular homicide against Thompson in the Lake Street crash — five for operating a vehicle in a grossly negligent manner and five for fleeing the scene.

A little over a year later, they added five counts of third-degree murder.

That amended charging document was filed alongside a motion to include what’s known as Spreigl evidence, asking the court to allow the presentation of evidence about Thompson’s California conviction in the upcoming murder trial.

The motion argued the commonalities between the two crashes was important because Thompson plans to argue at trial that someone else was driving the car. The California evidence would be relevant to proving Thompson knew the risk of driving dangerously and thus “acted with a depraved mind” in the 2023 car crash.

That language is essential to proving third-degree murder in Minnesota.

Thompson’s attorney, Tyler Bliss, filed a memo arguing that the cases were not legally similar. The California conviction was for a police chase with sirens on, in broad daylight and in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Hwy. 101 in California. The Lake Street crash allegedly happened after the Escalade was speeding before any contact with law enforcement, no sirens were activated and the crash happened at night.

Bliss wrote that the state was trying to admit the California evidence to show his client was “a dangerous man” and all of his driving conduct was in reckless disregard to the risk it posed to other people.

There was no hearing on the memos.

In November, Hennepin County District Judge Carolina Lamas issued a two-page order that the California evidence was inadmissible.

Judge Diane Bratvold wrote the Court of Appeals opinion, which was joined by Judge Tracy Smith and retired Judge Edward Cleary.

Bratvold agreed the evidence in the California crash and the crash on Lake Street are similar but did not meet all five requirements required in Minnesota legal statutes for Spreigl evidence to be admissible.

Thompson only challenged two of the requirements: whether the evidence the Attorney’s Office wanted to enter was relevant and if its value outweighed the potential prejudice against him.

Bratvold wrote that while the evidence from the California crash and the Minnesota crash both involved reckless driving, evading police and serious injury, the commonality is “too general” to show that it was a “common scheme or plan” by Thompson to drive recklessly. On top of that, the crimes were committed in different states and five years had passed between them.

The similarities in time and place is key to admitting Spreigl evidence. Bratvold writes that it was well within Lamas’ discretion as judge at the District Court level to decide if the relationship between the two crimes was “sufficiently close.”

And while the evidence from the California crash would help aid the argument for third-degree murder charges in the Minnesota case, the Court of Appeals ruled that “the state’s need for evidence of the California incident is low” to convince a jury of Thompson’s guilt because of the amount of evidence it gathered from the crash in Minneapolis.

The Attorney’s Office argued that any prejudice the evidence from the California crash created for the jury would have come from the factual impact of that conviction “not the result of anything unfair or undue” toward Thompson’s presumption of innocence.

Thompson countered that by saying the California evidence would confuse jurors and make the entire case “focus on his alleged propensity to commit crimes while driving.”

Bratvold writes that, like various Spreigl evidence cases the Court of Appeals and state Supreme Court have considered, the California crash has both legal value and the potential to prejudice a jury because it “depicts egregious behavior.”

The question for the Court of Appeals is, did Lamas abuse her discretion by excluding the California evidence?

Bratvoldt writes that Lamas did not, noting that case law in Minnesota shows that if Spreigl evidence is a “close call, it should be excluded.”

Jury selection in the trial is set to begin May 27.