A 19-year-old woman with a brief but extensive habit of speeding got a four-year sentence Friday for crashing her car on a well-traveled Minneapolis street and leaving one of her two badly injured passengers to die in the fiery wreck.
Mackenzie Rose Lene, of Minneapolis, was sentenced in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to hit-and-run criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation in connection with the single-vehicle crash on March 31, 2024, that killed 20-year-old Cole Jacob Thompson, of Blaine, and severely burned the other passenger.
With credit for time in jail after her arrest, Lene is expected to serve the first 2⅔ years of her term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
The passenger who survived, 21-year-old Jon Seas of Columbia Heights, has gone through numerous skin grafts and surgeries since the crash.
“Most of what happened during the crash and right after it I still do not remember,” Lene said in a letter to Seas that was filed in court Thursday. “I do remember pulling you out of my backseat before leaving and your confusion after the crash.”
Jon Seas' father shared a victim impact statement with the Star Tribune. In it, he spelled out the months of extreme pain his son has endured during treatment for his burns, which he said led to more than $1.5 million in medical bills.
Watching what his son, who played varsity football for Columbia Heights High School, has gone through is “like a scene from a horror movie,” Jim Seas wrote.
“My son struggles to sleep, faces numerous future surgeries and still tries to deal with the death of his friend Cole,” Jim Seas continued. “To have been sitting next to Cole as he took his final breath after being abandoned in [a] burning car ... this accident will be part of my son’s life forever.”