Charges: Driver accused of using drugs before deadly St. Paul crash

A car crash Monday afternoon in St. Paul that left one person dead will result in vehicular homicide charges for the man police believe was using narcotics when he crashed a stolen vehicle.

Devin Markus Chase, 33, of St. Paul is charged with two counts of vehicular homicide - one while operating under a controlled substance - and one count of motor vehicle theft, for his role in a crash that killed Randi Lee Stone, 30, of Minneapolis. She was pronounced dead at the scene by police.

According to St. Paul police, at around 4:10 p.m. on Feb. 20, officers responded to a car crash that occurred at Cretin Avenue North and Mississippi River Boulevard.

Officers that arrived on the scene found Chase on the ground a foot away from the driver’s side door, which was shut, according to charges.

Chase originally told police that Stone’s sister had been driving, and she had since fled the scene. 

A car crash Monday afternoon in St. Paul that left one person dead will result in vehicular homicide charges for the man police believe was using narcotics when he crashed a stolen vehicle.

When responding officers spoke to the driver in the other vehicle, they learned it was headed south on Cretin Avenue and approaching Mississippi Boulevard in the far right lane when the oncoming vehicle crossed over the center line into traffic at a high rate of speed, the victim said.

At around 8:00 a.m. the following morning investigators went to the hospital to interview Chase, when they noticed redness on both of his arms consistent with a steering wheel airbag deployment, according to charges.

Police said Chase told them he had been living out of the vehicle for about two weeks, and he didn’t know where it came from, but he assumed it was stolen. He denied knowing who had stolen it, police say, but that a woman known as "Shorty" and a man known as "Biz" had been living out of it with him.

According to the charges, the morning of the crash, Chase told officers they had bought methamphetamine and heroin, then drove around smoking the drugs they had purchased but he couldn’t remember anything about the crash. 

Chase denied that his DNA would be on the driver’s steering wheel airbag, but declined to provide a voluntary sample. Police later obtained a search warrant to collect it, according to the charges.

The 2015 Nissan Altima that was involved in the crash was previously reported stolen on Feb. 8, after the keys had been taken from a gym locker bag.