A motorist was drunk, high, speeding and driving without a license when he broadsided a woman's car and killed her at a Minneapolis intersection, according to felony charges.
Charges: Man drunk, high, speeding and unlicensed when he killed other driver in crash near University of Minnesota
The driver who died was a pancreatic cancer researcher at the University of Minnesota in preparation for a career as a doctor.
December 30, 2022 at 9:56PM
Kenneth D. Spencer Jr., 25, of Maple Grove, was charged Thursday in Hennepin County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the collision shortly after 2 a.m. Nov. 18 at SE. 10th and University avenues that killed 24-year-old Ebony Miller of Minneapolis.
A warrant has been issued for Spencer's arrest. A message was left with Spencer on Friday seeking his response to the allegations.
Spencer has never had a Minnesota driver's license, a state Department of Public Safety official said. Since April 2018, he's been convicted five times in Minnesota for driving without a license, once for traveling 104 miles per hour in a 50 mph zone, and once each for auto theft and fleeing police in a vehicle.
Thursday's charges also said he was accused of speeding and driving drunk in St. Louis Park in July 2021. But the most serious counts were dismissed in exchange for him pleading guilty in May to driving without a license. He was on probation in connection with that case at the time of last month's crash.
Miller's father said in an interview with a newspaper in the Bahamas, where she grew up, that his daughter was heading to her Minneapolis home from her second job at M Health Fairview hospital as a doctor's assistant when the crash occurred. Her primary work was as a pancreatic cancer researcher at the U in preparation for a career as a doctor.
According to the criminal complaint:
Officers arrived at the scene of the crash, where Spencer admitted to drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana before driving. A test of Spencer's blood by law enforcement showed his blood alcohol content was "almost twice the legal limit" for driving in Minnesota.
The complaint did not specify a precise blood alcohol content percentage. The legal limit for driving in Minnesota is 0.08%.
Traffic cameras showed Spencer's car entered the intersection "with an obvious red light" when he hit Miller's car broadside, the charges read.
Data from Spencer's car revealed that he was traveling at nearly 75 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone at the time of impact.
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