A 35-year-old man has admitted being drunk and high while driving on the wrong side of the highway in Scott County, hitting an oncoming SUV and killing a passenger and seriously injured two others.
Michael M. Morse, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty Friday in Scott County District Court to one count of criminal vehicular homicide and two counts of criminal vehicular operation in connection with the crash on May 22, 2022, that killed 19-year-old Arianna M. Vos of Hutchinson, Minn.
Morse indicated in his plea agreement that he intends to ask the judge to spare him prison and sentence him to probation. That would be a downward departure from a sentence of roughly 31⁄2 to 43⁄4 years that state guidelines recommend.
Vos arrived by ambulance at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and was declared dead about 90 minutes after the collision, the charges said.
The driver of the SUV, 21-year-old Cassidy N. Martin, of Gaylord, Minn., needed a metal rod implanted to repair a broken leg, according to the charges. Rear-seat passenger Alyssa L. Grutt, 21, of Hutchinson, required the same procedure for a broken leg. Grutt also suffered a lacerated liver, lung bruises and abdominal injuries.
Vos was a Hutchinson High School classmate of Grutt's and worked with Martin at a FedEx facility in Mankato, Vos' mother said. DeeDee Vos said her daughter and the others were returning from the Twin Cities after a night at an 18-and-older club.
Arianna Vos had just finished her sophomore year at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where she was studying zoology, her mother said.
