Charges: Impaired pizza delivery driver fatally hit woman in Hopkins
Hennepin County Jail
A pizza delivery driver has been charged with hitting and killing a 26-year-old woman as she walked down the sidewalk in Hopkins.
Cole Leon Venables, 28, Minnetonka, is charged with one count of criminal vehicular homicide.
According to the criminal complaint, police responded to Mainstreet and 15th Avenue South in Hopkins at about 6:55 p.m. Friday, April 16, where they found a woman partially underneath a Dodge Charger that was stopped near a tree.
The woman, identified as 26-year-old Olivia M. DeMeuse, of Hopkins, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Venables was at the scene, telling police he fell asleep behind the wheel of the Charger and woke up to loud noises. He was wearing a local pizza business shirt and his vehicle, which had heavy front-end damage, had a pizza delivery car topper.
A witness told police she saw the Charger jump the curb, hit a light pole and then run over DeMeuse as she walked down the sidewalk, the complaint notes.
Another witness, who was driving behind the Charger, told police she saw the car swerve before hitting the light post, charges say. She stopped to help, noting Venables had slurred speech and was shaking, and she believed he was intoxicated.
Venables admitted to police that he'd taken prescription Suboxone earlier, 3-4 benzodiazepines at about 4 a.m. and Xanax, another benzodiazepine, at the start of his shift. The charges note Venables admitted to illegally purchasing pills.
He also said his manager tried to send him home from work before the crash because he was "too tired."
The complaint notes Venables was under the influence of a narcotic analgesic. A blood sample was taken.
Venables' criminal history includes a fourth-degree driving while impaired conviction in connection to a November 2015 incident.
Venables was still in jail as of Tuesday morning, with his first court appearance scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. His bail is $150,000, according to jail records.
If convicted, Venables faces up to 15 years in prison and/or a $20,000 fine.
