A plea deal is on the table for the son of a former St. Paul state representative accused of running a red light just off Interstate 35W in south Minneapolis last summer and crashing into a sedan, killing five young women.

At a Tuesday pretrial hearing in Hennepin County District Court, Assistant County Attorney Paige Starkey read in court the offer for Derrick John Thompson: A prison term between 32½ and nearly 39 years for pleading guilty to five counts of criminal vehicular homicide for causing a collision and leaving the scene.

Derrick John Thompson (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

Meanwhile, five counts of criminal vehicular homicide for operating a vehicle in a grossly negligent manner would be dismissed under terms of the potential deal.

Starkey said Tuesday the plea offer will remain open until the next court date, which is set for Nov. 4. A trial, meanwhile, is scheduled to start Dec. 2.

Thompson, 28, of Brooklyn Park, did not speak at Tuesday’s hearing, which lasted just shy of seven minutes. His attorney didn’t say in court whether he would accept the plea deal.

The hearing was attended by family members and friends of the young women who died; some of them cried as they left the courtroom.

The charges say that Thompson sped through a red light at Lake Street and Second Avenue and struck a Honda Civic with five women inside just after 10 p.m. on June 16, 2023.

Pronounced dead at the scene were Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park; Sabiriin Mohamoud Ali, 17, of Bloomington; Sahra Liban Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center; Sagal Burhaan Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis; and Siham Adan Odhowa, 19, of Minneapolis. The young women had been returning from preparing for a friend’s wedding.

Thompson, who also faces federal charges in connection with the crash, is the son of former Minnesota Rep. John Thompson, who represented St. Paul’s East Side for one term beginning in 2021.

Derrick Thompson has been in federal custody at the Sherburne County Jail since Dec. 18, when he was arraigned in federal court. A jury trial in that case is scheduled for Oct. 7.

Clocked at 95 mph on highway

A Minnesota State Patrol trooper clocked Thompson driving a sport-utility vehicle 95 mph in a 55-mph zone about 10:10 p.m. just before the crash, according to the Hennepin County criminal complaint.

The complaint also alleges:

Before the trooper could catch up or turn on the squad’s emergency lights or sirens, Thompson “abruptly cut across all four lanes of traffic” and exited at Lake Street. Thompson drove down the exit ramp and through the intersection without stopping or slowing for the red light. The Honda had a green light and was traveling west on Lake Street.

Law enforcement found a rental car receipt on the ground outside the Cadillac SUV and it listed the renter as Derrick Thompson. Thompson rented the vehicle from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport about 25 minutes before the crash.

Left: Sagal Burhaan Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis, and Siham Adan Odhowa, 19, of Minneapolis. Top right: Sabiriin Mohamoud Ali, 17, of Bloomington . Bottom right: Sahra Liban Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center, and Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park. All five died when the driver of another vehicle crashed into their vehicle in Minneapolis on June 16, 2023. (Courtesy of the Dar Al Farooq Center)

In federal court, Thompson stands charged with intent to sell fentanyl and two counts related to illegal possession of a firearm. Both were allegedly found in the vehicle after the collision. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.

The county attorney’s office has not reached a “global resolution” with federal prosecutors, so the two cases remain separate “at this time,” Starkey said Tuesday. “I think that there’s a difference in terms of presumption on whether federal time is concurrent or consecutive,” she said.

In 2020, Thompson was convicted in California in a 2018 case, in which he fled from officers in a vehicle and struck a woman. She was in a coma for several weeks. He was on probation in the case at the time of the Minneapolis crash.

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