1 week Ago By Olivia Estright
PRESTON, Minn. — The Fillmore County Attorney's Office argued in court documents that 18 charges filed against a woman accused of killing two Amish children in 2023 should not be dismissed. Samantha Jo Petersen, 36, is facing 21 total charges in the case, including eight felony counts of criminal vehicular homicide; eight felony counts of criminal vehicular operation; two gross misdemeanor counts of driving while impaired; two misdemeanor counts of failing to provide proof of insurance and careless driving; and one petty misdemeanor for speeding.
ADVERTISEMENT She is accused of striking an Amish buggy with a vehicle in September of 2023. The crash killed two children and a horse. Two other children were also injured.
She is also accused of attempting to switch identities with her twin sister Sarah Beth Petersen, who has also been charged in relation to the case. The defense filed a 22-page brief on Oct. 19, requesting that the court dismiss the first 18 counts due to “lack of probable cause.
” A search warrant for Samantha’s phone and blood was executed nearly 37 hours after the crash occurred, according to court documents. The blood test showed the presence of THC and methamphetamine. Defense attorney Carson Heefner argued in the brief that “the search warrant lacked probable cause, the nighttime search was unsupported, the warrant was overbroad and its execution exceeded its scope.
” “There is no possible way to determine whether Defendant was under the influence of that substance 37 hours prior to the blood draw,” Heefner wrote. “It is, quite literally, impossible.” The defense has also argued the twins' recorded conversation in the squad car should not be allowable in court.
After the crash, Fillmore County Deputy Don Kullot interviewed Sarah in his squad car. During a pretrial hearing in September , Kullot testified that he stepped out of his squad car to deal with other matters and left a recorder on with the intention of continuing their conversation. Sarah rolled down her window to speak with Samantha.
The recorder picked up a conversation between the sisters. According to the criminal complaint, Sarah can be heard saying, “I think that one of the guys is onto me, but I don’t really care ..
.” and “There’s no way they would ever know the difference between the two of us, so they can’t tell.” According to Heefner, the conversation was recorded without the consent from either sister.
He said it's "wholly unreasonable to assume" Samantha would stand next to her sister and not have a conversation, claiming anyone in Sarah's position would "consider the conversation to be private." ADVERTISEMENT Fillmore County Attorney Brett Corson argued in a 41-page brief filed on Nov. 4 that the conversation between the Petersen sisters should not be suppressed "since it was not intentionally recorded" and that Sarah consented to the initial recording with Kullot.
Corson continued, adding "there was no reasonable expectation of privacy" for either sister. Sarah, who voluntarily sat in the squad car for an interview with Kullot, watched the deputy take a digital recorder and place it in the cup holder of the vehicle, the prosecution's brief said. During the interview, Samantha "hovered around" the squad car, the prosecution claimed.
Sarah did not object to the recording of their conversation, the brief said. "Kullot did not intend to record the conversation between the defendant and Sarah because he could not reasonably anticipate that the defendant would intentionally project her voice into his squad car for the purpose of talking to Sarah," Corson wrote. After the crash, both sisters "voluntarily" provided information to law enforcement, including that Sarah was the alleged driver, Corson argued.
"Consent is apparent" because both Petersen sisters approached law enforcement first, the brief said. According to Corson, there was probable cause to issue the search warrants because there was “fair probability” that Samantha’s blood contained a controlled substance and that her phone contained evidence of a crime. Two witnesses provided phone and text messages to law enforcement from Samantha.
In the messages, she admitted to being the driver, having killed two children and not being sober, the brief said. Corson said the application establishes the probability because Samantha Petersen was the registered owner of the vehicle, both sisters were at the scene of the crash, Samantha told a coworker she killed the two children while on methamphetamine and the number for the 911 call matched Samantha's number. ADVERTISEMENT "All of this information in the warrant application undoubtedly establishes a fair probability that the items to be searched or the evidence to be seized is connected to the criminal vehicular homicide and efforts to deceive law enforcement regarding the true identity of the driver," Corson wrote.
The defense's motion aims to dismiss nearly all of the charges that showed Samantha was under the influence at the time of the crash due to lack of probable cause. Corson alleges that "there is ample evidence in the form of the BCA testing, defendant’s statements that she will be checking herself into treatment, Sarah’s statements that she did not realize how bad the defendant was and that defendant needed to go to treatment, and defendant’s driving conduct on the day of the crash." The BCA testing corroborates Samantha's admissions of being high, Corson argued.
In addition to the two witnesses, Samantha also messaged a man on Snapchat to say she would be checking herself into treatment, the court document says. ”Why go to treatment if you weren’t high when you killed the two Amish kids?" Corson wrote. Corson requested that the court dismiss the defendant’s motion and set a date for the plea hearing and trial.
No hearings have been scheduled as of Monday, Nov. 11. According to initial reports from the Fillmore County Sheriff's Office, at 8:25 a.
m. on Sept. 25, 2023, a 2005 Toyota 4Runner driving south on Fillmore County Road 1 came up from behind and struck a two-wheeled horse-drawn Amish buggy.
The crash happened near the intersection with County Road 102. Seven-year-old Wilma Miller and 11-year-old Irma Miller died in the crash. Their siblings, 9-year-old Alan Miller and 13-year-old Rose Miller, were injured.
A horse was also killed as a result of the crash. ADVERTISEMENT The 18-page criminal complaint lays out a complicated set of events at the scene of the crash. According to court documents, a captain from the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office spoke with a witness on the scene who said he saw a woman he believed was the driver on the phone, calling 911.
The man described the woman as a “blonde female wearing a Hy-Vee employee shirt that was black and red.” Another witness on the scene described the woman he believed was the driver as “wearing black clothing, no eyeglasses, really light blonde hair, was taller.” The second witness later noticed another woman appear at the scene who looked similar to the first woman, but wearing different clothes.
“The second lady had a T-shirt with no sleeves on and she looked a little bit smaller than the first lady. (The second witness) wasn’t sure how the second lady got there; she just sort of appeared. Leroy saw the second lady give the first lady a hug and heard the first lady say that she didn’t see them until it was too late,” the complaint said.
Court documents say Sarah Beth Petersen identified herself as the driver in the crash. While on the scene of the crash, squad car audio picked up a conversation between the sisters while Sarah was sitting in the vehicle. The two discussed how law enforcement could not tell them apart.
During the recording, the complaint says, Sarah can be heard saying, “I think that one of the guys is on to me, but I don’t really care” and “There’s no way they would ever know the difference between the two of us, so they can’t tell.” ADVERTISEMENT After a deputy read Sarah her Miranda Rights, Sarah said she “didn’t feel like she did anything wrong but knows that she hit someone, killed someone, and would have to live with that for the rest of her life.” She later said she wanted to speak to an attorney.
Her phone was seized and logged into evidence. While at the scene, Samantha asked to grab an ID under the floor mat from the silver SUV involved in the crash. Inside the silver SUV, a deputy noticed burnt marijuana blunts and “a small tin can commonly used to hold marijuana.
” The vehicle was later towed and inventoried. A red T-shirt and black smock worn by Hy-Vee employees was located inside the silver SUV. Both sisters worked for Hy-Vee, according to the court documents.
A human resources employee told law enforcement that Samantha had punched out for work at 7:47 a.m. on Sept.
25, 2023. Around 10 a.m.
that day, Samantha texted HR asking HR to call her. Samantha told the employee that she was on methamphetamine and that she had killed two Amish children after crashing into their buggy. “I f----- up.
I just killed two Amish people,” Samantha said, according to court documents. ADVERTISEMENT The human resources employee asked Samantha if she had been drinking and Samantha said, “No, (HR), you know that’s not my first choice ..
. I’m high on meth.” According to the complaint, Samantha told the human resources employee that she had left the scene after Sarah arrived.
Police also reviewed security camera footage, taken at Hy-Vee earlier on the day of the crash, that showed Samantha driving the vehicle that later crashed into the buggy. The store manager said Samantha had messaged them and HR on Sept. 25, 2023, “saying that she messed up and was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the crash.
” When asked why Sarah would take the fall for Samantha, the manager said they believed “it was because Samantha took care of Sarah’s children while Sarah was in prison and now, she feels like she needs to help Samantha.” The phone number used to call 911 is the same number that Samantha provided to law enforcement at the scene. A search warrant for a blood draw and a full set of fingerprints for Samantha was requested and granted by a judge on Sept.
26, 2023. The results showed the presence of methamphetamine, amphetamine and Delta-9 THC. Law enforcement also spoke with a social worker who had had a conversation with Sarah’s 13-year-old daughter.
The girl allegedly told the social worker her mom wasn’t the driver. The child was worried that when she got home later that day, her mother and aunt would be gone. The criminal complaint says that a review of messages exchanged between Samantha and another person from Sept.
25 through Sep. 26, 2023, showed Samantha saying she “hit that amish buggy and killed two ppl” and “made sarah come there and take the fall for it so i wouldn’t go to prison.” According to the complaint, Samantha had also searched “What happens if you get in an accident with an Amish buggy and kill two people,” “how to lock an iphone cops have,” “if you hit a buggy and kill two people are you going to prison?” and similar searches.
Minnesota State Patrol concluded that the driver of the silver Toyota 4Runner SUV was traveling between 63 mph and 71 mph at the time of the crash. The speed limit on County Road 1 is 55 mph. The view on the road was clear for 1,452 feet before the crash scene, and there were no obstructions.
Shortly after the date of the crash, both Samantha and Sarah Petersen moved out of their Spring Valley residence, according to court documents. They are believed to be living in the Kellogg area. Sarah Petersen faces 16 felony charges.
She’s scheduled to appear in court for a settlement conference on Dec. 9..
