A 21-year-old man was given the maximum prison term for running stops signs at night in Rochester after drinking with friends, hitting another car while speeding and fleeing the wreckage holding his dead victim.

Akili N. Scott was sentenced in Olmsted County District Court to a prison term of slightly less than six years in the death of Kayla Cunningham, a 23-year-old who moved from Aberdeen, S.D., a year earlier to study at the Mayo School of Health Sciences.

With credit for time served since the crash on Nov. 6, Scott will be eligible to leave prison after roughly 3 3/4 years and be placed on supervised release for the remainder of his sentence for criminal vehicular homicide and related counts in connection with his being intoxicated at the time.

Investigators checked the car's GPS device and determined that Scott was driving 67 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone when he hit Cunningham's car at 8th Avenue and 13th Streets SE.

Cunningham was dead inside her car, which came to rest on its hood. A passenger later told police that Scott ran two stop signs moments before the crash.

Scott's car was abandoned in the middle of 13th. He and three others with him ran from the scene.

Police tracked Scott to a home nearby. He had scrapes on one hand and was limping. He first denied driving the car, then acknowledged being behind the wheel.

When police asked him whether he checked on the other driver, Scott, the odor of alcohol coming from his breath, said "he walked up to the car, but he couldn't see anybody because it was dark, so he kind of walked off," according to the criminal complaint.

One of the friends in the car told authorities that Scott, too young to legally drink at the time, was downing gin that night while watching a game on television at the home of another passenger.

In a letter to the court before being sentenced by Judge Joseph Chase, Scott apologized to Cunningham's family for what he called "an accident. I … would never try to strike a car with another car."

"It's more than a miracle I'm alive," the handwritten note continued, "but if I could trade places [with Cunningham], I would in a heartbeat."

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482