Nearly a year after an 18-year-old Farmington woman was killed in a three-car collision, a 59-year-old man has been charged in connection with her death because he was allegedly driving while high on an anti-anxiety medication for which he didn't have a prescription.

A criminal complaint filed in Dakota County District Court charges Bruce Vaughn Moore of Minneapolis with vehicular homicide in the death of Darah Robertson, a teen knowing for helping others. A driver of another car was slightly injured, and Moore is charged with that injury as well as misdemeanor charges in connection with the accident about 3:15 a.m. June 7 at Cedar Avenue and County Road 42 in Apple Valley.

Moore's car had run a red light and collided with Robertson's car, which was heading south on Cedar, Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said Wednesday. Robertson's car was then pushed into a third car, killing her and injuring the other driver.

Responding police said Moore was slurring, disoriented and swaying, even a couple of hours after the accident, according to court documents. He told police he didn't remember the signal lights at the intersection. Blood tests found no alcohol in his system, but police believed he was under the influence of a depressant, and they ordered more detailed blood testing.

Moore did not have a prescription for the drug that was found in his system, nor for other drugs that had been in prescription bottles that police found in his car. Backstrom said Moore, a building cleaner, had been living in his car and was going from one night job to another when the crash occurred.

The charges took nearly a year to file in part because the accident reconstruction was lengthy, and it took quite some time to get toxicology findings, Backstrom said. He said blood tests confirmed that Moore's system had toxic levels of alprazolam, the generic form of the anti-anxiety medication Xanax, Backstrom said.

The high levels of the drug found in the man "far exceeded any therapeutic range" for it, Backstrom said.

JOY POWELL