A St. Louis Park man pleaded guilty Monday to criminal vehicular homicide in the death of hardware store owner James Hance, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Tuesday.
Jorge Juarez, 20, pleaded guilty as jury selection was to begin for his trial. Sentencing is set for Dec. 19. The county attorney's office will ask for a prison sentence of nearly five years.
According to the criminal complaint, a woman told police that she was driving west on Minnetonka Boulevard in St. Louis Park about 9:40 p.m. on April 15 when an SUV heading east drifted into her lane and she had to swerve to avoid hitting it. She looked in her rearview mirror and saw the SUV go into the westbound lane and smash into a car near Ensign Avenue.
Hance, 75, the driver of that car, was taken to the hospital, where he died less than four hours later. He was the second-generation owner of Hance Ace Hardware in Hopkins.
In court Monday, Juarez admitted that he smoked marijuana and took Xanax, an anxiety medication, while at a friend's house before getting into his vehicle. At the time of the crash, he was texting and driving nearly 20 miles over the 30 mile-per-hour speed limit, he said.
DAVID CHANEN
