Jury Selection Begins Today for Man Accused of Causing Crash That Killed Five Women

(KNSI) — Jury selection started today for a Minneapolis man accused of killing five women in a devastating high-speed crash in June of 2023.

Derrick John Thompson is charged with ten counts of criminal vehicular homicide and five counts of third-degree murder. Prosecutors say he was driving 95 mph down a Minneapolis street after getting off Interstate 35W when he slammed into another car, killing all five young women inside. They ranged in age from 17 to 20-years-old and had just left the Karmel Mall where they’d gotten henna done for a friend’s wedding.

According to court records, a state trooper was sitting at I-35W and 46th Street when he spotted a Cadillac Escalade speeding by. His radar clocked it at 95 mph. Thompson was weaving through the far left lane before suddenly cutting across all lanes of traffic to exit at Lake Street. He was going so fast the trooper couldn’t even turn on his lights and sirens to pull him over.

After the crash, witnesses nearby called 911 and said Thompson had fled the scene. Police found him sitting outside a restaurant parking lot, bleeding from a cut on his forehead, had blood on his hands and clothes, and he was sweating heavily. When officers asked what happened to him, Thompson first said he had cut himself, and it was an old cut. When they pressed him because the injuries looked fresh, he changed his story and said he had “fallen” earlier that night.

When investigators searched Thompson’s wrecked SUV, they say they discovered a loaded Glock handgun with an extended magazine, more than 2,000 fentanyl pills, 14 grams of powdered fentanyl, 13 MDMA pills, 35 grams of cocaine, and a digital scale. Since Thompson has a felony record, he’s not allowed to have guns.

This isn’t Thompson’s first deadly crash. In 2018, he hit someone while running from police in California, leaving his victim in a coma for months with a traumatic brain injury. Thompson ran from that crash, too. Police found 17 pounds of marijuana and $20,000 in his car. He was eventually caught in St. Paul, pleaded guilty, and got eight years in prison in 2020, but was let out early.

He has already been convicted of gun and drug charges in federal court related to the crash and now faces a potential life sentence on federal charges in addition to the state murder and vehicular homicide counts.

The defendant is the son of former state Representative John Thompson. Attempts to contact the Minnesota Department of Public Safety regarding how Thompson obtained a Minnesota driver’s license were unsuccessful.

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