Latest of many serious crimes sends Twin Cities woman to prison for murder with sports car

A woman with a long criminal history has received a sentence topping 20 years for fatally striking a woman with a vehicle in Maplewood then dragging the victim’s body along the pavement.

Ashley Renee Couch, 35, of St. Paul was sentenced this week after pleading guilty in Ramsey County District Court to second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the hit-and-run crash on Aug. 14 at Larpenteur Avenue E. and N. Dieter Street that killed 23-year-old Zakirrah Anderson of Minneapolis.

With credit for time in jail since her arrest, Couch is expected to serve 13 years in prison and the balance on supervised release.

At the time of the incident, Couch was driving after having her license revoked, the state Department of Public Safety said.

Court records show that Couch has a long and varied criminal history in Minnesota. She has been convicted six times for theft, four times each for disorderly conduct and assault, twice for terroristic threats and once each for aiding a drive-by shooting, property damage and possessing burglary tools.

She also has a conviction for child endangerment from when she threw her newborn daughter in a snowbank in south Minneapolis on a freezing-cold day in March 2011. She was sentenced to two years’ probation for that offense. Couch told law enforcement she was upset with the baby’s father for taking money from her house.

According to the latest charges:

Medics found an injured Anderson on the pavement with a long cut that stretched down her back and one leg. She was declared dead at Regions Hospital.

A witness told police she was with Anderson and another person who were in a parked car and waiting to fight another group of women at Wakefield Park.

The witness told police the scene was recorded on Snapchat. Officers viewed the video, which showed women yelling as a Dodge Charger headed west on Larpenteur, hitting a car.

Anderson and a woman in her group were standing outside the car, and the impact sent the other woman airborne. Anderson was struck “and then is no longer visible [in the video] as the vehicle continues to drive west on Larpenteur,” the charges read.

The woman who survived being hit told police that Anderson’s group took gunfire that night in the 1400 block of Maryland Avenue from a group that included Couch. That shooting led to the rivals agreeing to fight at Wakefield Park.

Police found the Charger, damaged and unoccupied, the next morning in an alley in the 1000 block of McLean Avenue in St. Paul. The rear license plate was gone, and “there were trash cans that appeared to have been placed in front of it in an effort to conceal it from view,” the charges read.

Couch told police she kept driving after Anderson was hit because the other women were talking about pepper-spraying her car and referencing guns.