Chronic speeder who left friend to die in fiery Twin Cities wreck gets prison sentence

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.”

Court records show that Lene was cited for speeding four times from April 2022 to July 2023, exceeding the limit anywhere from 21 to 29 mph. She also was charged nine months ago and convicted in Hennepin County of a misdemeanor for drinking and driving while under age 21 in Maple Grove.

Jim Seas added in his statement ahead of Friday’s sentence that “I am also angry that none of her previous ‘reprimands’ have done much to assist her to change and mature.”

“When Cole was born on April Fool’s Day,” his online obituary reads, “he ‘understood the assignment’ and brought intense laughter and spread positivity everywhere he went. Throughout his life, ‘Caveman’ Cole was the CEO of adventure and had an authentic vibe like no other.”

A posting on an online fundraising campaign on behalf of the family read that “Early Easter morning, two Blaine police officers knocked on Kris and Carie Thompson’s door to deliver the worst news any parent can ever hear.”

According to the criminal complaint:

Officers arrived at the accident scene along Hiawatha Avenue near E. 41st Street in Minneapolis at about 12:35 a.m. and saw that the car had hit a tree. Thompson was down in the road and appeared dead. Jon Seas was standing near the car and had serious burns along with a concussion and three broken ribs.

Two people nearby told police they heard an explosion, ran toward the street and saw Lene and a man standing outside the car. One of the witnesses told police that he and another man pulled a passenger from the backseat and placed him on the ground. The other witness reported seeing Lene and a man leaving and climbing over a wall as emergency responders arrived.

Police traced the car to a home about three-quarters of a mile away and collected video surveillance from the area that showed a man and a woman, later determined to be Lene and one of her passengers, walking in the alley and speaking to each other.

Jon Seas told officers days later that all four were in Lene’s car that evening and were “passing around a bottle of alcohol” before attending a birthday party. He said Thompson didn’t want to drive, so Lene got behind the wheel and was “driving fast and aggressively.”

A spokesman for the county attorney’s office said Friday that police did not bring a case against the passenger who fled the crash scene with Lene to prosecutors for consideration of charges.