A 23-year-old man has been spared prison time after admitting that he crashed his pickup truck in Forest Lake while extremely drunk and killed one of his passengers. The judge imposed probation instead.
Trent P.R. Jeans, of Forest Lake, was sentenced in Washington County District Court last week after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the wreck on Oct. 10, 2021, that killed 31-year-old Courtney L. White.
The charges say Jeans was drinking earlier that day in Forest Lake at the Old Log Cabin, where White worked.
Jeans could have been sentenced to a term of 4 3⁄4 years, with two-thirds of that time in prison. However, Judge Sheridan Hawley set aside that time and put Jeans on probation for seven years and imposed a one-year jail sentence that Jeans can serve while on work release or in a "sentence to serve" program. That often means being part of a supervised work crew or doing other community work involving physical labor.
Jeans also was ordered to stay away from alcohol and illicit drugs while on probation and devote 240 hours of community service "related to the perils of alcohol consumption," court records read.
In arguing for the 4 3⁄4-year term to be imposed, prosecutors pointed out in a presentence filing that a test of Jeans' blood by law enforcement measured his alcohol content soon after the crash at 0.218%, more than 2 ½ times the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.Testing also detected cocaine in his system.
"The wake of destruction that [the] defendant has left as a result of his preventable decision resulted in the death of [White] and the lifetime sentence of loss for her children, loved ones and family," the prosecution filing read.
Defense attorney Paul Sarratori countered in his own filing that his client should not be sent to prison. Sarratori pointed to Jeans' lack of a criminal record until the crash, his remorse for what happened and his full cooperation throughout the investigation.
"Mr. Jeans is requesting that the court take a chance on him being a success story after this tragedy by not sending him to prison," Sarratori wrote.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police arrived at North Shore Trail and N. 230th Street and saw Jeans' badly damaged pickup truck. White, a mother of two, was dead at the scene. Jeans and two other passengers, Karl Keller and Alissa Jesmer, were not hurt.
Keller told police that he and Jeans had "multiple drinks and shots of alcohol" at the Old Log Cabin, the complaint read.
The charges said the four of them then headed to Mallards Restaurant and Lounge. Keller said he believed Jeans was driving too fast and lost control in the moments before the crash.
Officers asked Jeans how much he had to drink, and he replied, "I didn't count," according to the charges. Jeans said he spent 5 ½ hours at the Old Log Cabin and ordered seven 16-ounce bottles of light beer, but he was unsure how many he actually drank. He said he left briefly, returned and drank more at the Old Log Cabin.
