Unlicensed repeat speeder sentenced to year in workhouse for fatal crash in Plymouth

An unlicensed repeat speeder who was driving 95 mph in a 45 mph zone seconds before killing another driver in a crash in Plymouth has been sent to the county workhouse for a year.

Christopher L. Keyes, 45, of Corcoran, was sentenced Thursday in Hennepin County District Court after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors in June. He admitted to criminal vehicular homicide in the May 6, 2022, collision that fatally injured 75-year-old Sandra Wetterlind, of Plymouth.

As spelled out in the plea deal, Judge Kerry Meyer set aside a four-year term for five years and instead imposed the year in the workhouse. Meyer also imposed several conditions upon Keyes that include: remain law-abiding, no speeding or other traffic offenses, no driving without a valid license or insurance, complete a safe driving course, attend a victim impact panel and pay a $1,000 fine.

According to the prosecution, the plea agreement was an acknowledgment that proving gross negligence by Keyes beyond a reasonable doubt in a trial would be difficult based on his excessive speed alone.

Over a 30-month period dating to late 2019, Keyes was ticketed for speeding at least seven times. That's on top of two other speeding convictions in the state several years earlier, according to court records.

Despite all the tickets, fines and other convictions for not having a driver's license or insurance, an unlicensed Keyes was driving at least 95 mph in his Lexus seconds before he plowed into Wetterlind's car at County Road 101 and 38th Avenue N.

Even after being charged on Aug. 5, 2022, with causing the fatal crash, Keyes was ticketed four days later by Plymouth police for driving without a valid license and again for the same offense in Minnetonka in late November.

According to the criminal complaint:

Three motorists told police they saw Keyes' car heading north on County Road 101 at roughly 100 mph while changing lanes and nearly hitting other vehicles moments before the crash that sent Wetterlind's car into the corner of a townhome.

The sergeant analyzed the vehicle data and calculated that Keyes was driving 95.7 mph fewer than 5 seconds before the collision and between 68 and 77 mph when he hit Wetterlind's southbound Hyundai as she turned left in front of him. The speed limit in the area is 45 mph.

"The driver of the Hyundai likely perceived the Lexus at a distance that would normally be safe to turn left," the sergeant is quoted in the complaint. "The driver did not realize the Lexus was traveling twice as fast as normal traffic in that area would be traveling."

In yet another effort to get drivers to back off the gas pedal, law enforcement across Minnesota wrote more than 20,000 speeding tickets during a July enforcement campaign.

Nearly a third of agencies that participated in the campaign clocked drivers going well over 100 mph, including Minnesota Vikings No. 1 draft pick Jordan Addison, who was stopped by a state trooper for going 140 mph on Interstate 94 in St. Paul.

Also last month, Quintin Leon Hudson, 20, allegedly was under the influence and driving as fast as 90 mph through a neighborhood while eluding police when he broadsided a Crystal family's minivan in Robbinsdale. The wreck at N. 36th and Orchard avenues killed Emily Gerding, 34, and seriously injured her husband, John.

Staff writer Tim Harlow contributed to this report.