Charge: Driver admits ‘jamming out’ on air guitar when he hit and killed pedestrian in Moose Lake

A northern Minnesota man said he was “jamming out a bit” playing air guitar while driving last week when he fatally struck a man who had just left a store in Moose Lake, according to a criminal complaint.

Brent J. Keranen, 21, of Pengilly, Minn., was charged in Carlton County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash Thursday near the intersection of Industrial Park Road and Jon Brown Drive that killed 61-year-old Justin McNeil of Moose Lake.

Keranen posted bond Friday night and is due back in court on Monday. A message was left with Keranen seeking his response to the allegations. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

Court records within the past two years show that Keranen was caught on Jan. 4 by a Chisago County sheriff’s deputy on Interstate 35 texting on his phone while going 82 miles per hour. He pleaded guilty and paid a $135 fine last month.

He’s also been convicted in Minnesota of traveling 95 mph in a 60-mph zone and driving an unregistered vehicle without insurance when he crashed into a FedEx truck.

According to last week’s criminal complaint:

Law enforcement responded shortly after 2 p.m. to a report of a crash and determined that Keranen was driving north on Industrial Park Road, veered onto the right shoulder and hit McNeil soon after he walked out of a nearby Dollar General store toward his home a quarter-mile away. Emergency medical personnel declared him dead at the scene.

Keranen said he was driving to his home in eastern Itasca County after working in the Twin Cities. He said he was short on sleep after staying up the night before drinking with friends.

A few hours before the crash, Keranen said, he fell asleep while driving and “struck or contacted” a state trooper’s squad vehicle while leaving the metro area, the complaint read. He said a trooper measured his blood alcohol content at 0.066%, below the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.

He said he resumed his travels after being ticketed, stopped for a 5-hour Energy shot and kept driving.

At the time of the crash, Keranen said, “he was listening to the radio when a good song began playing, prompting the defendant to play ‘air guitar’ to the song, when suddenly his air bags deployed,” the complaint continued.

He contended he didn’t know at the time that he had hit someone but later said he was “looking down and jamming out a bit, and the next thing you know, I hit somebody,” the complaint quoted him as telling law enforcement. He said his cruise control was set at 52 miles per hour in a 40-mph zone.

Law enforcement gave Keranen a roadside sobriety test, and he showed signs of impairment. A preliminary breath test at the scene measured his blood alcohol content at 0.06%.