A 33-year-old man received a nearly seven-year term for being extremely drunk and on a video call when he caused a chain-reaction crash on a Twin Cities highway that killed a couple in a car.
Luis E. Tipantua, of Minneapolis, was sentenced in Ramsey County District Court after pleading guilty to two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the three-vehicle wreck on Feb. 16, 2024, in Arden Hills that killed Karin Leigh O’Connor, 74, and Curtis John O’Connor, 76, both of New Brighton.
With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Tipantua is expected to serve the first 3⅓ years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
Tipantua was heading west on Interstate Hwy. 694 near Snelling Avenue about 8:45 a.m., when he swerved from the right lane to the left shoulder, overcorrected and spun out. He then crossed a ditch and struck the O’Connors’ car, the State Patrol said.
A westbound semitrailer truck then hit the car broadside. Tipantua and the semi’s driver, 68-year-old Steven J. Silva, of Sunnyside, Wash., survived their injuries.
A search warrant affidavit disclosed that Tipantua was on a 28-minute video call that continued past the time of the collision, which police said they learned from his brother, who was on the other end and later showed up at the scene.
The affidavit, which led to the patrol collecting data from Tipantua’s phone, also revealed that he wrote in a text to his brother minutes after the crash, translated from Spanish to English, that “you already take me for being drunk.”
A test soon after the crash indicated that Tipantua’s blood alcohol content was 0.197%, nearly 2½ times the legal level for driving in Minnesota.
