Derrick Thompson Crash: Charges, Verdict, and 58-Year Sentence

Derrick Thompson was sentenced on July 24, 2025 to 704 months in prison — roughly 58 and a half years — for the Minneapolis crash that killed five young Somali American women on June 16, 2023. Hennepin County District Judge Carolina Lamas imposed the term after a jury convicted Thompson on five counts of third-degree murder and ten counts of criminal vehicular homicide, and the judge ran the five murder sentences consecutively so that Thompson would serve a distinct term for each victim.¹ Under Minnesota law he must serve two-thirds of the sentence, roughly 37 years after credit for time already served, before he is eligible for supervised release.²

What Happened the Night of the Crash

Around 10 p.m. on June 16, 2023, a Minnesota State Patrol trooper on northbound Interstate 35W clocked a black Cadillac Escalade traveling at 95 miles per hour and moving erratically. Before the trooper could initiate a stop, the Escalade exited onto Lake Street in south Minneapolis.³ Thompson cut across four lanes on the ramp, ran the red light at 2nd Avenue and East Lake Street at roughly 100 miles per hour, and T-boned a Honda Civic that had a green light, pinning it against an I-35W bridge wall.⁴

A responding trooper testified the Honda was unrecognizable as a car, and first responders did not immediately realize five people were inside.⁵ All five women died. They were Sabiriin Mahamoud Ali, 17; Sagal Burhaan Hersi, 19; Siham Adan Odhowa, 19; Sahra Liban Gesaade, 20; and Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, 20, friends running errands before a wedding the next day.²

Thompson, then 27 and a resident of Brooklyn Park, fled on foot and was arrested a short time later at a nearby Taco Bell.⁶ Body-worn camera footage captured him telling officers, “I don’t want to be here all night” and “Please tell them that this is not me.”⁵

A Nearly Identical California Case Five Years Earlier

The Minneapolis crash was not Thompson’s first high-speed flight ending in catastrophic injury. In September 2018, in Montecito, California, he rented a vehicle, sped away from a police stop, exited the highway, and struck a pedestrian, pinning her against a retaining wall before fleeing on foot. The woman suffered a fractured pelvis, a broken arm and ribs, head trauma, and internal bleeding, and survived after eight surgeries and a medically induced coma. Police recovered 17 and a half pounds of marijuana and $20,000 in cash from the rental.⁷

Thompson pleaded guilty in Santa Barbara County to leaving the scene of an accident causing injury, evading police, and narcotics sale conspiracy. He received an eight-year sentence in 2020 and was released after roughly three years.⁷ The Minneapolis crash came six months after his release.⁸

Prosecutors sought to introduce the 2018 incident at trial as evidence of a pattern — renting vehicles, fleeing police at high speed while carrying drugs, crashing, and running. Judge Lamas ruled it inadmissible, and the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed, finding the overlap “too general” and other evidence sufficient.⁷ The prior conviction did surface later, as an aggravating factor at sentencing.

The Charges and the “Who Was Driving” Defense

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty added five counts of third-degree murder in September 2024 to the ten existing counts of criminal vehicular homicide, citing Thompson’s “lengthy record of dangerous driving” and the timing of his release from California prison.⁸

Thompson’s defense argued that his brother, Damarco Thompson, had been driving the Escalade. They pointed to Damarco’s blue hat on the passenger side, spare keys to Damarco’s Dodge Challenger in the vehicle, and witness accounts of a man in a gray sweatshirt fleeing the scene, matching what Damarco had been wearing earlier that night.⁹

Damarco was compelled to testify under court-ordered immunity limited to who was driving. He said he met Derrick at a park near the airport, gave him the blue hat, and watched Derrick drive off alone in the Escalade.¹⁰ Forensic testimony undercut the defense further. DNA on the driver’s-side door was 6,000 times more likely to belong to Damarco than a random person, and 100 billion times more likely to belong to Derrick.⁹ A juror later noted that the driver’s seat had been pushed far back to accommodate a tall driver; Derrick is 6 feet 5 inches tall.¹¹ Lead investigator Sgt. David Ligneel testified that video showed only one set of doors opening on the Escalade.

Verdict and the Aggravating Factors That Unlocked the Sentence

On June 6, 2025, after six days of testimony and two days of deliberation, the jury convicted Thompson on all 15 counts. The jury also unanimously found aggravating factors: Thompson’s prior California felony hit-and-run, the extreme speed at which he was driving, and his failure to render aid to the victims.¹² That finding gave Judge Lamas legal room to depart upward from the standard sentencing guidelines.

How the 58-Year Sentence Was Built

At the July 24, 2025 hearing, prosecutors asked for consecutive sentences for each of the five murder convictions. Judge Lamas agreed, calling consecutive terms “appropriate,” and arrived at 704 months. A presentence investigation report had recommended more than 68 years; the defense had asked for 22 to 28.¹

The probation officer’s report highlighted Thompson’s refusal to accept responsibility. In his presentence interview he admitted driving but called the crash an “accident” and denied fleeing law enforcement. The probation officer wrote that framing it that way “implies that this was an event that happened by chance. Instead this was a series of bad decisions that culminated in a tragic and avoidable fatal event.”¹

Thompson addressed the victims’ families publicly for the first time, apologizing and saying he had suffered nightmares, PTSD, and depression since the crash. “I have been punished by God. I have been stripped of everything but my skin,” he told the court.¹³ Jeff Storms, an attorney representing the victims’ families, called the 58-year sentence “fair.”¹

With credit for time already served and Minnesota’s two-thirds rule, Thompson becomes eligible for supervised release after roughly 37 years.²

The Separate Federal Drug and Gun Conviction

A search of the Escalade after the crash turned up a handgun with an extended magazine, more than 2,000 fentanyl pills, and other drugs. Federal prosecutors charged Thompson with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking crime. At an October 2024 trial in St. Paul, a forensic scientist testified that Thompson’s DNA was on the firearm, on fentanyl powder packaging, and on the interior driver’s-side door. Prosecutors also introduced text messages from a phone linked to Thompson discussing fentanyl quantities and pricing, and an audio message in which he requested 30,000 pills.⁶

The defense again pointed to Damarco, arguing the drugs and gun were his. Prosecutors called that a “red herring.” On October 11, 2024, the jury convicted Thompson on all three federal counts.⁶ The federal sentence is expected to run concurrently with his state term.²

Appeal Status

As of March 2026, federal court records show no notice of appeal filed in Thompson’s federal case.¹⁴ No publicly available reporting indicates he has appealed the state convictions.

1
Sahan Journal. Derrick Thompson Sentencing: Minneapolis Car Crash
2
Fox 9. Derrick Thompson Sentencing for Deadly Minneapolis Crash
3
Fox 9. Derrick Thompson Set to Face Trial for Deadly Crash That Killed 5 Women in Minneapolis
4
Hometown Source. Brooklyn Park Driver Serving 59 Years for Fatal Crash Gets More Jail Time
5
Sahan Journal. Derrick Thompson Trial: Minneapolis Car Crash Police Video
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Sahan Journal. Derrick Thompson Federal Trial Verdict: Drug and Weapon Charges
7
Star Tribune. Court of Appeals: Prior Crash Evidence Inadmissible in Trial of Derrick Thompson
8
Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. Thompson Charges
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Star Tribune. Brother of Derrick Thompson to Testify After Defense Argued He Was Driving Escalade That Killed 5
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Sahan Journal. Derrick Thompson Trial: Brother Testifies
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CBS News Minnesota. Derrick Thompson Trial Fatal Crash Verdict
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Sahan Journal. Derrick Thompson Trial Verdict: Minneapolis Car Crash
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KSTP. Derrick Thompson Gets Over 58 Years for Crash That Killed 5 Women in Minneapolis
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CourtListener. United States v. Thompson