A motorist who fatally struck a pedestrian and left the scene last 12 months on St. Paul’s East Side was sentenced Wednesday to greater than six years in prison.
Michael John Friend, 65, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in June in reference to the Dec. 20 death of 34-year-old My Ger Vang, who was walking near the intersection of Third Street and White Bear Avenue when she was fatally struck.
Ramsey County District Judge Edward Sheu on Wednesday denied a motion by a county public defender asking for a downward dispositional departure from state guidelines and to provide Friend a stayed sentence and probation.
Sheu gave Friend 75 months in prison, which is the low end of sentencing guidelines for the conviction. The presumptive guideline sentence is 88 months.
Friend will receive credit for 233 days already served in custody.
In response to the criminal criticism, Vang was walking near the intersection of Third Street and White Bear Avenue about 8:30 p.m. when she was struck by Friend, who drove a white 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan.
Police found Vang unconscious on the street with significant injuries. She later died at Regions Hospital.
The subsequent day, Friend turned himself in to police and admitted he was the motive force of the minivan that hit Vang, in line with the criticism.
“I’m the one that hit that lady,” he said to police, in line with the criticism. “I take full responsibility so far as what happened.”
He was accompanied by a lady who said Friend took her vehicle without permission and had later admitted he had been in an accident. She told police he told her that he had hit an individual and left the scene.
Friend told her there was damage to her windshield from the collision. He said he believed Vang was still alive when he drove off.
St. Paul officers found the minivan parked at Mounds Boulevard and Earl Street in a car parking zone. It had cracks to the windshield and front-end damage near the passenger side.
In an Aug. 4 court motion, Friend’s attorney Erik Sandvick said Friend “panicked and drove away,” but turned himself in to police the following day. “Through his actions, he helped the solve this case and began the strategy of bringing closure to Ms. Vang’s family,” he wrote. “While his actions don’t rise to a level of a legal defense, they do show his acceptance of responsibility for his actions.”
Police reports don’t indicate that Friend was speeding, swerving or driving recklessly on the time of the accident, Sandvick wrote. Vang stepped out from between two cars into the road — not in a crosswalk or at an intersection, he noted.
In response to Sandvick, the ultimate autopsy report showed Vang had a blood-alcohol content of 0.21 percent and the presence of amphetamines and methamphetamine.
In a Tuesday memo arguing for the judge to follow sentencing guidelines, Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Ambrosia Mosby-Velasco noted how Friend was previously convicted of multiple misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors and felonies.
On the time of the hit-and-run, Friend was serving probation after being convicted of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon in July 2020, “which the state believes is a showing that he will not be particularly amenable to probation,” Mosby-Velasco wrote.