A northern Minnesota man has been handed a one-year jail term after admitting to “jamming out a bit” on air guitar while driving and high, and fatally hitting a man who had just left a store in Moose Lake.
One year in jail for Minnesotan who was playing air guitar while driving and fatally struck pedestrian
The driver was under the influence of several illicit drugs at the time, according to the criminal complaint.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
December 3, 2024 at 4:36PM
Brent J. Keranen, 22, of Pengilly was sentenced Monday in Carlton County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash on March 21 at the intersection of Industrial Park Road and Jon Brown Drive. Killed was 61-year-old Justin McNeil, of Moose Lake.
A test by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension detected that Keranen’s blood alcohol content soon after the crash was 0.054%, below the legal limit for driving in Minnesota, the criminal complaint read. The test also detected methamphetamine, cocaine and THC in his blood.
Judge Rebekka Stumme set aside a four-year prison sentence in favor of the year in jail. The sentence includes 10 years’ supervised probation and 150 hours of community service.
Court records show that Keranen was caught on Jan. 4 by a Chisago County sheriff’s deputy on Interstate 35 texting on his phone while going 82 mph. He pleaded guilty and paid a $135 fine.
He’s also been convicted in Minnesota of traveling 95 mph in a 60-mph zone and driving an unregistered vehicle without insurance when he crashed into a FedEx truck.
Law enforcement responded shortly after 2 p.m. to a report of a crash and determined Keranen was driving north on Industrial Park Road when he veered onto the right shoulder and hit McNeil. The older man had just walked out of a nearby Dollar General store headed toward his home a quarter-mile away. Emergency medical personnel declared him dead at the scene.
Keranen said he was driving to his home in eastern Itasca County after working in the Twin Cities. He said he was short on sleep after staying up the night before drinking with friends.
A few hours before the crash, Keranen said, he fell asleep while driving and “struck or contacted” a state trooper’s squad vehicle while leaving the metro area, the complaint read. He said a trooper measured his blood alcohol content at 0.066%, below the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.
He said he resumed his travels after being ticketed, stopped for an energy drink and kept driving.
At the time of the crash, Keranen said, “he was listening to the radio when a good song began playing, prompting the defendant to play ‘air guitar’ to the song, when suddenly his air bags deployed,” the complaint continued.
He said he was “looking down and jamming out a bit, and the next thing you know, I hit somebody,” the complaint quoted him as telling law enforcement. He said his cruise control was set at 52 mph in a 40-mph zone.
The driver was under the influence of several illicit drugs at the time, according to the criminal complaint.
