As Derrick Thompson stands trial on gun, drug charges, jury watches video of crash that killed 5

The thundering crash was the only sound that carried through an overhead surveillance video depicting the June 2023 collision that instantly killed five young Somali-American women the night before they were to celebrate a wedding.

Earlier Tuesday morning, a federal prosecutor warned the St. Paul jury that the brief clip would be jarring. A loved one in the back of the courtroom clenched a fist, pounded her chest and temporarily exited to compose herself after it was played.

But U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan, in remarks echoed by the prosecution and defense, reminded those in the room that they were not there to consider any crimes related to that devastation. A separate state court proceeding will take up murder and homicide charges against Derrick John Thompson, arrested after fleeing the scene of the crash. But this week’s trial is focused on what was left behind in the mangled Escalade that plowed into a car carrying the women.

“This is a case about an armed drug dealer,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Calhoun-Lopez told jurors during the government’s opening statement on Tuesday. “We’re here because Derrick John Thompson crashed a car carrying 2,000 fentanyl pills, fentanyl powder, cocaine and a loaded gun.”

Thompson, 28, who is the son of former DFL state Rep. John Thompson, also has third-degree murder and criminal vehicular homicide charges pending in Hennepin County. This week’s federal trial is on charges of possession with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl, being a felon in possession of a firearm and carrying a firearm “during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.”

The victims were Sabiriin Ali, 17, of Bloomington; Sahra Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center; Salma Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park; Sagal Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis, and Siham Adam, 19, of Minneapolis. On the night they were killed, the women were on their way home after running last-minute errands before a friend’s wedding the next day. Their funeral was attended by thousands and an online fundraiser to support the victims’ families raised more than $450,000.

For the first time publicly, Thompson’s defense attorneys argued that the drugs and a loaded Glock pistol with an extended magazine discovered in the Escalade belonged instead to his brother Damarco John Thompson – whom both the prosecution and defense said was a passenger in the vehicle and also fled the scene of the crash.

“Simply put, the government has tunnel vision,” said Matthew Deates, an assistant federal defender who is one of two attorneys representing Thompson. “Derrick is the only person arrested after the crash. Damarco got away and because they never caught Damarco, they essentially ignored Damarco.”

Damarco Thompson has not been arrested or charged with any crimes connected to the crash.

Deates told jurors that it was Damarco who liked “flashy things” and colorful clothing, hence the multi-colored wrap on the pistol found inside the Escalade. Calhoun-Lopez said earlier that both brothers sold drugs together. Police found three phones in the car, one for each brother and another that they shared, he added.

Police found video, text and voice messages on Derrick’s phone depicting narcotics being weighed for sale and negotiations over drug purchases. Calhoun-Lopez and Deates meanwhile respectively teed up a dispute over how much weight to place on Derrick Thompson’s DNA found on the drugs in the car and DNA attributable to both brothers left behind on the gun.

Deates pointed out that the black leather bag carrying the gun and drugs was found beneath a distinctive blue cap Damarco was captured wearing earlier that night as he dropped Derrick off to rent the Escalade at a Hertz location at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The bag contained a loaded Glock handgun with an extended magazine and various controlled substances – including more than 2,000 blue pills containing fentanyl, 14 grams of powdered fentanyl and 35 grams of cocaine.

According to court documents, a state trooper observed Thompson driving at 95 mph on Interstate 35W in a Cadillac Escalade. The trooper followed Thompson but did not turn on his lights or sirens because he didn’t want to attempt a traffic stop on city streets given the dangerous driving. The Escalade was seen abruptly cutting across all four lanes of traffic and weaving around other vehicles before taking the Lake Street exit.

About a block behind Thompson, the trooper saw the Escalade “fly through a red light at the intersection of Lake Street and Second Avenue,” crashing into a Honda Civic that was crossing the intersection on a green light. Surveillance video from a nearby business captured the deadly crash and court documents describe a scene that was “chaotic and, at times, emotional.”

Blood from one of the women was later found on the Escalade’s airbag, according to court filings.

Witnesses described Thompson fleeing the scene on foot with a noticeable limp. He was arrested in the parking lot of a nearby Taco Bell, sweaty and bleeding, after a witness confirmed that Thompson was the man she saw running from the crash site. Body-camera footage played to jurors on Tuesday showed Thompson claiming first that the visible blood on his body was from an old injury before later claiming to have tripped on a log in the parking lot.

Police found a Hertz rental record for the Escalade in Thompson’s name on the ground near the front passenger door. The record showed that Thompson rented it about a half-hour before the crash from a Hertz located at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Video from the business showed Thompson and his brother arrive, Thompson renting the Escalade and the two men departing in separate vehicles.

Thompson was diagnosed with a hip fracture and declined surgery before being taken to jail, according to court records. While at the hospital, he allegedly expressed feelings of remorse about the crash to a nurse who treated him and made it clear to her that he had been driving, according to a trial brief filed by the government. But Thompson denied that he had been attempting to flee police when the crash happened.

Pretrial filings also alluded to HCMC medical records that contained a “Spiritual Care Note” describing “inculpatory statements” Thompson made about the crash to a hospital chaplain. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ruth Shnider wrote that the government doesn’t plan to offer the statements unless Thompson testifies at trial and contradicts them.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s office added new murder charges last month, just after a prosecutor from her office disclosed that Thompson was offered a deal to plead guilty to five of 10 counts of criminal vehicular homicide while causing the crash and fleeing the scene. Terms of the plea called for Thompson to serve between 32 and 38 years in prison. The county would in return drop the other five charges of criminal vehicular homicide while operating a motor vehicle in a gross or negligent manner.

Thompson is barred from possessing firearms based on similar past convictions in California. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to evading an officer causing injury, leaving the scene of an accident involving permanent injury and conspiracy to possess marijuana for sale. The charges stemmed from an incident two years earlier in which he fled police in a vehicle, struck and severely injured a pedestrian and fled on foot. Officers found more than 8 kilograms of marijuana in Thompson’s car. He was released from prison on the charges about six months before the June 2023 crash in Minneapolis.

Star Tribune staff writer Jeff Day contributed to this report.