A 21-year-old driver received a four-year term for being drunk when she caused a collision at a Coon Rapids intersection that killed a passenger in the other vehicle and the baby that woman was excited to bring into the world.
Woman who was drunk when she killed expectant mom, unborn child in Twin Cities collision gets prison time
Defendant Makayla April Sua Richardson was not yet old enough to drink legally at the time of the crash and was not licensed to drive alone.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
March 17, 2025 at 12:51PM
Makayla April Sua Richardson, of Mounds View, was sentenced Friday in Anoka County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicle operation for causing “the death of an unborn child” in connection with the crash on Aug. 18, 2024, at NW. Coon Rapids Boulevard and Springbrook Drive.
With credit for time in jail since her arrest, Richardson is expected to serve the first 2⅓ years in prison and the balance on supervised release. She also was ordered to make more than $24,000 in restitution to her victims’ survivors.
Five weeks before the crash, Melinda Thao, 26, of Coon Rapids, sat with her husband, Christopher Yang, in their vehicle and read a phone message that told them she was pregnant with a daughter. They were going to name her Leona.
The state Department of Public Safety said Richardson was driving on an instruction permit that required her to have with her a licensed driver 18 years of age or older. The criminal complaint made no mention of Richardson having a passenger.
According to the complaint and a related court document:
Yang, driving an SUV, was turning left with a green arrow from eastbound Coon Rapids Boulevard to northbound Springbrook Drive when he was struck by Richardson as she went through a red light while heading west and pulling a trailer.
Thao, sitting in the SUV’s front seat, was taken by emergency responders to a nearby hospital. Thao, who was five months pregnant, and her fetus were both declared dead. Yang suffered broken ribs.
Richardson, who was 20 years old at the time of the crash and too young to consume alcohol legally, told officers at the scene that she had one drink that evening. She also acknowledged she was speeding and lacked a valid license. In a later interview with police, she said she had two shots of alcohol and half an alcoholic seltzer.
Officers saw an empty alcoholic beverage in her pickup. The officers gave Richardson a preliminary breath test, and it measured her blood-alcohol content at 0.18%, more than twice the legal limit in Minnesota for a driver at least 21 years old.
A search warrant affidavit filed in Hennepin County alleges more than $130,000 has been stolen from REI stores around the country, including locations in Bloomington, Maple Grove and Roseville.
