An Inver Grove Heights motorist who drove off after fatally running over a woman was sentenced Wednesday to incarceration totaling four months.
Breyona S. Cotton, 32, will serve three months in the Dakota County jail and one month on electronic home monitoring after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death in connection with hitting 55-year-old Haimanot G. Gebremedhin, of Inver Grove Heights, more than two years ago.
Late in the afternoon on Jan. 5, 2019, a passing motorist notified police of Gebremedhin on the north side of 80th Street near the intersection with Blaine Avenue. The longtime Inver Grove Heights resident was declared dead at the scene.
The next day, Cotton came to police headquarters with her attorney and said that friends told her about the crash being covered by the news media.
She explained that "out of nowhere" she heard a collision and thought she had struck a deer, the criminal complaint read. She said she pulled over, looked around and went home.
A State Patrol report concluded that Gebremedhin should have been visible to the driver and that "any reasonable investigation into the collision would have revealed the victim's body" to the motorist, the complaint continued.
Paul Walsh
