A 27-year-old Brooklyn Park man driving on a revoked license and hiding drugs under his floor mat killed a 50-year-old father of four in a multicar collision while fleeing police, according to charges filed Friday.
Trevon X.M. McMorris was charged in Hennepin County District Court with one felony count of causing a death while fleeing a peace officer. The charge carries a penalty of up to 40 years in prison and a fine up to $80,000.
Bail was set at $750,000, but McMorris will not be eligible for release from Hennepin County jail because of a probation violation from a recent conviction for fleeing Brooklyn Park police.
McMorris' criminal history in Minnesota includes at least 10 convictions for driving with a suspended or revoked license, another 10 for driving without insurance or lacking proof of insurance, five for speeding, three for drug possession and one for disorderly conduct.
According to the criminal complaint:
Minneapolis police were on routine patrol Wednesday when they responded to a call about three suspicious vehicles in front of the 3300 block of N. Aldrich Avenue on the city's North Side. The officers had reason to believe the vehicles were involved in a drug deal and approached a Dodge Durango occupied by McMorris. They noticed a strong odor of marijuana and say McMorris had glassy, bloodshot eyes.
As the officers ran checks on McMorris and the drivers of the other vehicles, McMorris took off at high speed, narrowly missing one of the officers, the complaint says. Seconds later, McMorris crashed into a dark sedan traveling west on N. 36th Avenue, then plowed into several parked cars.
Officers pursuing McMorris quickly found the wreckage — and a gravely injured Jose Angel Madrid Salcido pinned inside the sedan. He was rushed by ambulance to North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, where he died about an hour later.
His wife, Martha Perea, told the Star Tribune on Thursday that he worked as a contractor and was the family's sole means of support.
"We depended 100 percent on my husband," she said, sobbing on her front steps. "He was the only thing I had. He was everything."
The family, originally from Chihuahua, Mexico, has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral expenses: gofundme.com/muerte-de-un-inocente. By late Friday, it was more than halfway to its goal of $5,000.
The donation site recounts the horror of Perea realizing that her husband's car was among the debris — struck just two blocks from his house.
Neighbors Gina Gill and Cary Turner ran out of their house that night after being roused by loud booms. The couple watched as officers surrounded McMorris with guns drawn to make the arrest. "They took him immediately," Gill said, as she flipped through cellphone images snapped shortly after the crash.
A search of McMorris' vehicle recovered bags of suspected cocaine beneath the driver-side floor mat, and a loaded Taurus .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun with a live round in the chamber, court records show. Officers also recovered suspected marijuana and a small scale. McMorris had "a large amount of cash in his pockets," the complaint notes. The contraband is being tested.
His next court appearance is scheduled for May 29.
Staff writer Miguel Otárola contributed to this report. dan.browning@startribune.com 612-673-4493 liz.sawyer@startribune.com 612-673-4648
