A woman said she spent the day bar-hopping before getting behind the wheel drunk and causing a fatal head-on crash in South St. Paul that killed her ex-husband sitting next to her, according to a criminal complaint.
Bobbie Jo Braun, 52, of North St. Paul, was charged Wednesday with criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation in connection with the collision Monday that killed 60-year-old Paul E. Craven, of West St. Paul.
Braun remains jailed in lieu of $150,000 bail. She's due in court on June 21. Court records do not list an attorney for her.
A police officer gave Braun a preliminary breath test at the scene, and her blood alcohol content was measured at 0.201%, more than twice the legal limit for driving in Minnesota, the complaint said.
According to the charges:
Braun was heading south on Concord Street at about 3:20 p.m., when she crossed into the northbound lane and hit a pickup truck head-on. Craven was taken by emergency responders to Regions Hospital, where he died. A 64-year-old passenger in Braun's van went to the same hospital with spinal fractures and broken bones in his chest.
The 55-year-old pickup driver, less seriously injured, told police he saw Braun's southbound van suddenly cross into his lane and hit him head-on. Surveillance video from a nearby business showed the pickup driver trying to avoid the collision.
An officer saw Braun sitting on a sidewalk near the damaged vehicles. Her speech was slurred, and her eyes were watery. She had difficulty responding when the officer asked for her phone and address.
Braun said "she had been drinking at several bars today [and] stated she was drunk," the charges read.
The complaint noted that Braun has two convictions for drunken driving, one in 1993 and the other in 2000.
