A St. Paul man has admitted to speeding with a revoked license while drunk and high and then crashing into the back of an SUV on an Interstate 94 ramp in Minneapolis last year, setting off a chain-reaction pileup that left a woman dead and several other people injured.

Talon Covie-Cardell Walker, 30, pleaded guilty Friday in Hennepin County District Court to criminal vehicular homicide and two counts of criminal vehicular operation in connection with the Oct. 23 crash that killed motorist Natalie Gubbay, 26, of Minneapolis.

Talon Covie-Cardell Walker (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

Under a plea agreement, Walker faces between 7½ and 10 years in prison at sentencing, which is scheduled for Oct. 2.

The wreck happened shortly after 9:15 p.m. as Walker exited eastbound Interstate 94 onto Lyndale Avenue and crashed into other motorists near Dunwoody Boulevard.

“Witnesses indicated (Walker) was traveling approximately 100 mph at the time of the crash,” the charges say.

An analysis of a blood sample taken from Walker about 2½ hours later showed a blood-alcohol concentration of .093, as well as the presence of fentanyl and marijuana, according to an amended criminal complaint filed in December. The legal limit to drive in Minnesota is .08 BAC.

The complaint also gave updates on those injured.

Walker’s passenger, a 20-year-old St. Paul woman, was pregnant at the time and hospitalized for nearly a month with injuries that included fractures to both legs and a dislocated hip. “Doctors believe the injuries will have lifelong debilitating effects,” the complaint states.

Gubbay’s passenger, a 28-year-old Virginia, Minn., woman, lost consciousness and was diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries.

Walker and five others, including a 2-year-old boy, suffered injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening.

He appeared ‘zoned out’

Minnesota State Patrol troopers who arrived on the crash scene saw numerous cars with significant damage and several people with minor to severe injuries. Gubbay died at the scene.

After talking with witnesses and further investigation, troopers determined the following:

Walker, driving a 2006 Chevrolet Avalanche SUV, was traveling down the I-94 exit toward Dunwoody Boulevard, with “traffic on the road and numerous cars traveling slowly at the time,” the complaint says.

As Walker approached Dunwoody Boulevard, he sideswiped an SUV, then crashed directly into the back of Gubbay’s 2015 Jeep Cherokee SUV.

Gubbay’s SUV was pushed into the back of a 2017 Ford Edge SUV, which was pushed into the back of a 2021 Nissan Versa SUV, which was pushed into the back of a Toyota RAV4 SUV, which then struck a 2017 Audi Q5 SUV. The force of the crash caused two of the SUVs to be pushed 180 degrees sideways.

Troopers found an open bottle of liquor on the driver’s side floorboard of Walker’s SUV.

A State Patrol sergeant spoke with Walker’s passenger a month later. She said she met him a few days prior to the crash and they would smoke marijuana together, the amended complaint says.

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The night of the crash, Walker picked her up and drove to his cousin’s house in Minneapolis, where he smoked marijuana. After going upstairs for a while, he appeared “zoned out” and under the influence of a controlled substance, she said.

When Walker got behind the wheel, he was driving erratically, swerving back and forth, and at one point struck a concrete median. She said he kept driving faster and faster and that she saw the odometer reading over 100 mph, causing her to scream at him to slow down. He did not appear to respond, then crashed.

Walker’s license had been revoked since April 2021, according to the state Department of Public Safety. Prior to that, it had been suspended since November 2019.

Court records show Walker was convicted of careless driving in 2021, driving a motorcycle without a license in 2019 and possessing an open bottle and marijuana in a motor vehicle in 2017.