Unlicensed driver admits he was drunk in crash that killed Minneapolis researcher

An unlicensed motorist has admitted being drunk and high when he broadsided a car in Minneapolis and killed a cancer researcher who was driving home from her second job at a hospital.

Kenneth D. Spencer Jr., 25, of Maple Grove, pleaded guilty Thursday in Hennepin County District Court to 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.

Spencer's plea comes with no agreement on sentencing terms with the prosecution. Sentencing is scheduled for June 1.

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.

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 as a doctor's assistant at M Health Fairview hospital 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.