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.

Because the Sensers are well-known and believed to be well-off, some observers believed she would be cleared of all charges. They speculated that the family's fame and ability to hire top attorneys would give Senser an edge, and that a white defendant would prevail because the victim was a less-affluent person of color.

Others more sympathetic to Senser countered that she was facing more aggressive prosecution because of her family's celebrity.

In the end, the jury said that Senser did indeed bear some responsibility for what happened that night. By leaving the scene and failing to immediately call for help or report the accident, she violated laws that apply to car crashes.

But jurors did not believe the prosecution proved the most serious of the charges -- gross negligence -- and their verdict represented a middle ground of sorts.

The horrible accident that took Anousone Phanthavong's life has changed two families forever. Friends and relatives of the Phanthavongs have lost a loved one. Joe Senser and his daughters could see their wife and mother go to jail, and the family's name will always be associated with the high-profile trial.

It was easy for the public to form opinions about the circumstances that caused Phanthavong's death. But the only opinion that mattered Thursday came from a jury of Amy Senser's peers at the Hennepin County Courthouse.

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