A 27-year-old unlicensed driver has pleaded guilty to "doing doughnuts" in an SUV on a southern Minnesota pasture during a drinking party and fatally hitting one of his friends, then waiting until the next day before turning himself in to authorities.
Nathan P. Brooks, of Austin, entered his plea in Freeborn County District Court last week to criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the death of Alex D. Tapp, 30, who was hit on April 16, 2016, while standing near a bonfire behind a home roughly 7 miles west of Austin.
The plea deals calls for Brooks to receive a term of 6⅔ years. With credit for time served since his arrest and while incarcerated for an unrelated drunken-driving conviction, Brooks will serve roughly 3¾ years in prison for killing Tapp and the balance on supervised release. He is scheduled to appear in court again on Wednesday.
Brooks surrendered the day after hitting Tapp on his father's property and explained that his "heart just stopped" when he realized he had hit something, according to the charges against him. He said he went to the home's basement because he was distraught, and wasn't trying to hide.
Brooks' license has been revoked since 2009. The state Department of Public Safety classifies him as "inimical to public safety" when it comes to driving. He's been convicted of drunken driving three times as an adult, most recently in 2014, and once at age 15.
He has been caught at least eight times in the past nine years of driving without a license. In two of those instances, he was driving drunk.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
