Jury convicts Derrick Thompson on gun, drug charges in 2023 crash that killed 5

A federal jury on Friday returned guilty verdicts against a Brooklyn Park man in connection with a crash last year that killed five young women on Lake Street in Minneapolis.

Thompson’s conviction in this trial wasn’t for the crash itself, but the cocaine, 2,000 fentanyl pills and gun that police found in the SUV.

Jurors found Thompson, the 28-year-old son of former DFL state representative John Thompson, guilty of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, being a felon in possession of a firearm and carrying a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime.

In closing arguments Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ruth Shnider said the evidence against Thompson was overwhelming and left no doubt that the firearm and drugs were his. She pointed to text messages found on Thompson’s phone about flying to Arizona and buying a “huge quantity of fentanyl.”

Shnider said Thompson knew he was about to get caught with his gun and his drugs, so he fled. He suffered a broken hip in the crash and was seen limping away. Police arrested him nearby. 

In his own closing, Thompson’s defense attorney Aaron Morrison said the drugs and gun belonged to Thompson’s brother Demarco, who was also in the crashed SUV. Morrison also raised doubts about the DNA found on the handgun that prosecutors said was Derrick’s. Demarco Thompson has not been charged in the case. 

Hennepin County prosecutors charged Derrick Thompson last year with criminal vehicular homicide. Then in September, County Attorney Mary Moriarty added five new counts of third degree murder for the deaths of Sabiriin Ali, Siham Odhowa,  Sagal Hersi, Salma Abdikadir, and Sahra Gesaade.

The five were between the ages of 17 and 20 and had been running errands on Lake Street in preparation for a friend’s wedding when their Honda Civic was struck by Thompson’s rented Cadillac Escalade. Gesaade was about to graduate from the University of Minnesota and planned to go to medical school. Ali, the youngest victim, had just finished high school and had already completed some college classes with the goal of becoming a physician’s assistant.

Thompson faces trial on the state charges in February. Last month prosecutors offered him a plea deal where he’d serve 32 to 39 years.

Prosecutors say the Lake Street crash was “strikingly similar” to an earlier incident in California for which Thompson pleaded guilty and served part of a prison sentence.

Thompson admitted severely injuring a pedestrian in September 2018 while fleeing police in Montecito. He ran away from the crash and left a large amount of drugs behind. Thompson’s victim in California suffered broken bones including a fractured pelvis, internal bleeding, and had to be put into an induced coma and undergo six surgeries. 

Thompson pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, evading police and narcotics sale conspiracy. A California judge gave him an eight-year sentence, but he was released after serving just over four years in jail and prison. Five months later he allegedly crashed the Escalade on Lake Street. 

In a recent filing, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Paige Starkey argues that jurors in Minneapolis should hear about the California incident because Thompson took the same basic approach to evading law enforcement while carrying large amounts of drugs, and the earlier incident can help prove that Thompson — and not his brother — was driving. 

Tyler Bliss, Thompson’s defense attorney in the state case, argues in a separate filing that the California incident is irrelevant to the Minnesota charges and could prejudice or confuse the jury.

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