A 21-year-old man has received a term of nearly five years for fleeing police after a party in Burnsville and causing a crash that killed one of two teenage girls in the back seat.
Man who fled Burnsville police, crashed and killed teen passenger gets 5 years
He was hosting a loud party at a Burnsville hotel before he saw police outside and sped away in his car.
October 26, 2022 at 8:53PM
Alejandro J. Saavedra, of Farmington, was sentenced Monday in Dakota County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation in connection with the wreck on April 9 near Nicollet Boulevard and Grand Avenue in Burnsville.
Sydney N. Kohner, a 16-year-old sophomore at Lakeville North High School, died at the scene. A second passenger, 15-year-old Carmen M. Braun of Rosemount, survived her injuries. Saavedra suffered facial injuries.
With credit for time in jail after his arrest, Saavedra is expected to serve slightly less than 2 2⁄3 years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
Court records in Minnesota show that Saavedra also has convictions for drunken driving, fleeing police, driving without a valid license and theft.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police went to the Best Western Premier Nicollet Inn in the 14200 block of S. Nicollet Avenue in response to noise complaints that later were determined to be connected to rooms registered to Saavedra. When an officer arrived, he saw three people run through the parking lot and get into a car.
Saavedra sped out of the lot, ran red lights, lost a tire after hitting a curb and soon crashed about a mile to the north of the hotel as the officer pursued. Emergency responders found the girls unconscious in the back seat: the gravely injured Kohner and Braun, with broken bones and a severe head injury.
Saavedra told police he drank and consumed cocaine at the hotel before "he saw the police cars in the hotel parking lot and attempted to avoid the police by leaving the hotel," the charges read.
