St. Paul man guilty in drunken-driving death

A St. Paul man with an extensive criminal record who has never had a Minnesota driver's license was convicted on Tuesday of killing a 93-year-old woman while driving drunk in March 2010.

A Ramsey County jury found Eddie Cortez Smith, 32, guilty of criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular injury.

Edith Schouveller of St. Paul died April 19, 2010, three weeks after the car accident. Her children testified during the trial that she had been independent and lived by herself before breaking her neck and suffering head trauma in the crash.

"It's a great relief," said son Dennis Schouveller after the verdict. "We can finally get some closure now."

Edith Schouveller was on her way home from church around 10:30 a.m. when the vehicle in which she was a passenger was hit at the intersection of Milton Street S. and Watson Avenue W. in St. Paul's West Seventh neighborhood. A blood test taken about an hour after the accident showed Smith had a blood-alcohol content of 0.11. Ted Hanson, the 66-year-old driver of the second vehicle, suffered a broken pelvis from the crash.

"You don't expect your mother to be killed at 93," Dennis Schouveller said. "You expect her to pass away."

Murad Mohammad, Smith's attorney, had argued that Schouveller's prognosis was improving in the weeks after the accident and that she died because doctors did not use life-saving measures when her condition worsened, per her wishes.

During closing arguments, Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Margaret Samec said Smith caused Schouveller's death when he chose to drive drunk at highway speeds in a residential neighborhood.

"She didn't die at the scene," Samec said. "For three weeks, that stoic farm girl, she tried to hold on."

According to trial testimony, Smith told police that he had three shots of tequila and several beers the night before the accident. He told police he went to bed around 3 a.m. and didn't feel drunk the next morning.

The jury also decided there were aggravating factors in the case that can be considered by Judge Rosanne Nathanson when she sentences Smith on June 23. Those aggravating factors include that Smith's vehicle was speeding between 53 and 60 miles per hour, that he was looking down and reaching for a lighter when the crash happened and that he has never had a Minnesota driver's license. Based on Smith's record, which includes convictions for drunken driving, fleeing police, domestic abuse and theft, he could be facing more than six years in prison.