For the past eight months, Amy Senser's hit-and-run trial has pushed a number of emotional buttons for Minnesotans -- among them class, privilege, fame and race. Many observers could not get past the gut feeling that when a person dies, someone should be held accountable.
Regardless of public opinion, what really mattered was what jurors saw and heard in the courtroom from more than two dozen witnesses during the closely watched trial.
Based on that testimony, jurors on Thursday convicted Senser, 45, of two felony counts of criminal vehicular homicide in the death of Anousone Phanthavong along a freeway exit last summer.
The Edina resident and wife of former Minnesota Viking and restaurant owner Joe Senser was found guilty of failing to immediately call for help and of leaving the scene of the crash. She was acquitted of operating a vehicle in a grossly negligent manner.
Senser was also found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of careless driving. She will remain free on bail and is expected to be sentenced on July 9. The convictions could result in a four-year prison sentence.
Phanthavong, 38, was struck and killed as he stood beside his car, which had run out of gas and rolled to a stop on the Riverside Avenue exit ramp from westbound Interstate 94 in Minneapolis. He had emigrated here from Laos to join his family, and worked as a chef at a local Thai restaurant.
Senser testified that she didn't see Phanthavong. She told jurors that she thought she might have hit a construction cone but did not know she had struck a person.
Complicating her claims was the fact that the Senser family turned over the car for examination but didn't come forward to confirm that Amy Senser was driving until nine days after the accident.
