(KNSI) — The driver who caused a fatal crash last January is heading to prison.
Judge Heidi Schultz sentenced 54-year-old Chad Seitz of Coon Rapids to six years in prison, with just over a year’s credit for time served after he pleaded guilty in December to one count of criminal vehicular homicide, operating a vehicle on a Schedule One or two drug and one count of criminal vehicular operation, causing bodily harm while on a Schedule One or two drug. Under the agreement, he was sentenced for criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation. Five other charges connected to the crash and an unrelated drug charge from 2021 were dismissed.
According to the criminal complaint, around 6:45 a.m. January 22nd, 2024, first responders were called to a crash on Highway 55 in Crow Lake Township. Forty-one-year-old Cassie Mithaugen of Belgrade was going west on Highway 55 when Seitz crossed over the center line, and hit Mithaugen head on. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Mithaugen’s family said she was on her way to drop off her then three-year-old girl at daycare at the time of the crash. The girl was taken to Glacial Ridge Hospital in Glenwood before being transferred to Children’s Hospital for treatment.
Troopers spoke with Seitz, who was unhurt. Seitz told the trooper he was driving from Starbuck to the Twin Cities to go to work and didn’t know what happened but remembered he hit something and went into the ditch. Later in discussions with Seitz, the trooper said Seitz stated, “Maybe I dozed off.”
He admitted to investigators he was a regular meth user and had used marijuana and methamphetamine on January 19th and that they would find a meth pipe, scale, and marijuana in the vehicle. A blood test showed Seitz had methamphetamine, amphetamine and delta-9-THC in his system. Court records show he was driving on an expired license and was wanted in two counties at the time of the crash.
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