Federal firearms and drug possession charges. State criminal vehicular homicide charges. All filed today against 27-year old Derrick Thompson, the driver of a rented SUV that crashed into a car carrying five girls who all were killed.
Twin Cities defense attorney Joe Tamburino, who is not associated with the case, tells WCCO Radio's Jason DeRusha more serious charges are not out of the question.
"Right now, yes, it does appear to be undercharged because murder in the third degree does fit these facts," says Tamburino.
Tamburino says it will be interesting to see what evolves once the results of toxicology tests are in as well.
"To get to third degree murder, you have to get to some extremely dangerous act," Tamburino explains. "So if his toxicology reports come back that he's under the influence of alcohol, fentanyl, cocaine, whatever it is, the county attorney could ammend the charges. They sure could up the charges and put in the murder in the third degree. So that may happen."
If convicted on the federal counts alone, Thompson faces up to life in prison with a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.
The Friday night high speed crash happened 24 minutes after 27-year old Derrick Thompson rented the Cadillac Escalade from MSP airport.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Minneapolis has charged Thompson, who is already a convicted felon, with firearms and drug posession charges. Tamburino says the federal charges are serious.
"The quickness of the federal charges, that's what jumps out," Tamburino tells DeRusha. "I wasn't expecting that. I mean, I thought anyone who has 2,000 pills of fentanyl in their car, yes, you should expect that the federal authorities would interested at least. But the speed at which this came in, yes, I was surprised."
Thompson makes his first court appearance Friday afternoon.
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