Speeds reached 110 mph before Twin Cities street racers crashed, leaving two dead, charges say

Two drivers accused of being among three racing on a Twin Cities highway were traveling at 110 mph just before back-to-back crashes that left two people dead, according to murder charges.

Melody Lynn Little, 24, of West St. Paul, and Jordan John Wieland, 20, of White Bear Lake, were charged Thursday in Dakota County District Court with two counts each of third-degree murder and another two counts each of criminal vehicular homicide.

The crashes happened late at night on June 14 on an Eagan highway. An arrest warrant was served Friday to Wieland, who is under orders to complete the jail booking process ahead of a Sept. 16 court appearance. Little was booked into jail Thursday and remained there as of late Friday afternoon in lieu of $5,000 bail ahead of an Aug. 8 court hearing.

The Dakota County Attorney’s Office told the court in a filing that it intends to seek bail of $300,000 for Little, not only because of the deadly allegations against her but also because she has been convicted three times for speeding since 2020 and has two more speeding tickets pending.

The most recent of those citations was issued in Maplewood on July 14, about two weeks after one of the two single-vehicle crashes on Hwy. 149 killed Reed Robert Schultz, 19, of Savage, and his passenger Finnian Thomas Cronin, 18, of Edina.

In an effort to crack down on dangerous driving, prosecutors in the state have been turning more often of late to third-degree murder charges in certain fatal traffic crashes. Convictions for third-degree murder carry a maximum 25-year sentence; sentences for the more common count of criminal vehicular homicide are capped at 10 years.

According to the charges against Little and Wieland, a related court document and the State Patrol:

Schultz, the driver who hit the pole, died soon after the crash. Cronin died July 1 at the hospital.

Wieland, who was driving the Honda that went into the ditch, sustained noncritical injuries.

Little, racing with the others in her Dodge Durango pickup truck, avoided crashing. She told investigators that the three of them were in a group of five to 10 drivers heading for an informal car “meet-up” in Eagan. She said Schultz and Wieland were going “way too fast;” she claimed she was traveling 60 to 70 mph, decided to slow down and denied that she was racing.

Witnesses told law enforcement officials that Schultz, Wieland and Little broke off from the larger group and were racing from a meet-up in South St. Paul to one in Eagan at speeds topping 100 mph.

Cellphone video from inside Little and Wieland’s vehicles showed their speedometers shortly before the crashes had reached roughly 110 mph.

Wieland fled and was contacted by state troopers soon afterward while on his way to St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood. Troopers caught up to Wieland at the hospital, where he admitted not calling 911 and leaving without checking on the others in the crashed vehicles.

Wieland said he was “driving too fast, 90 mph, drinking alcohol although under 21 years old,” one court filing quoted him as saying.

He went on to claim that he and the others were not racing, “but acknowledged that it likely looked like they were racing,” according to the charges.

Along with her numerous speeding citations, Little has convictions in Minnesota for driving after having her license revoked and driving without insurance.