A 53-year-old out-of-town motorist has pleaded guilty to being high on cocaine when she sped through a Minneapolis interstate median, sending her SUV airborne and killing the driver of a car who was a noted community advocate and artist.
Nancy A. Scott of Michigan City, Ind., received no plea deal from prosecutors; she will be sentenced on Aug. 22 in Hennepin County District Court. Admitting to criminal vehicular homicide could mean a maximum 10-year term, with the first two-thirds served in prison and the balance on supervised release.
Kirk Washington Jr., 41, of Minneapolis was killed in the crash on eastbound Interstate 94 near Hwy. 280 during the evening commute on April 4, 2016. Scott recovered from critical injuries.
Prosecutors said Scott's vehicle was traveling 60 miles per hour before it went airborne and hit Washington's station wagon. His vehicle then struck a Metro Transit bus. Four riders suffered noncritical injuries.
As a teenager, Washington expressed himself through graffiti and then turned to the written word.
In a Facebook post after Washington's death, Mayor Betsy Hodges said the city had lost a great talent. Washington was among several poets who wrote a stanza for the poem "One Minneapolis: A City in Verse" for Hodges' 2014 inauguration.
