Charge: Driver with DUI history fatally hit pedestrian on I-35 frontage road in Owatonna, then fled

A motorist with a history of driving drunk was charged Friday with hitting a pedestrian on an interstate frontage road in Owatonna, Minn., and driving off.

Derek Denelsbeck, 42, of Owatonna, was charged in Steele County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the death early Wednesday of Taylor Dean Padilla-Ades, 31, of Lonsale, Minn., near Camping World RV sales just east of Interstate 35W in the 3700 block of County Road 45 N.

Denelsbeck remains jailed in lieu of $10,000 bail. He’s due back in court on Dec. 23. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

Court records in Minnesota show that Denelsbeck has been convicted three times for drunken driving and three times for driving after the state had taken away his driving privileges.

The State Department of Public Safety said Friday that at the time of the crash, Denelsbeck had a valid driver’s license, but it bears an “A” restriction, indicating that any use of alcohol or non-prescribed controlled substances invalidates the license.

According to the criminal complaint:

A driver on I-35 told law enforcement that he was heading to work about 5:15 a.m. and noticed on the frontage road a male walking around the front of a vehicle with a front passenger side headlight that was “all messed up,” the complaint quoted the witness as saying.

Police Sgt. Ben Johnson and a sheriff’s deputy found a red plastic vehicle component on the ground with small white ties attached. They identified the component, and the sergeant recalled seeing a pickup truck owned by Denelsbeck with zip ties attached to it.

Officers went to Denelsbeck’s home and saw the pickup facing forward in the garage and with a damaged front headlight assembly.

In the week before the crash, Johnson met Danelsbeck on a road and saw no such damage on the pickup. The sergeant has encountered Danelsbeck through various law enforcement contacts and has known him as the pickup’s only driver.

Danelsbeck told a detective that he got a call about him hitting someone. He said he thought he hit a deer.

“This was 5 in the morning,” the complaint quoted him as saying. “Who [expletive] walks in the road at 5 in the ... morning on the frontage road?”

Danelsbeck said he stopped north of the crash scene, looked at his truck, turned to see whether he hit a deer and didn’t see anything he may have struck.

Analysis of the truck’s data showed he was driving 57 mils per hour and was not braking at the moment of impact.