Albert Lea Tribune

Skov was behind the wheel with a near-fatal BAL when he drove into a head-on wreck and died.

Bar owner Michael Skov was behind the wheel and more than four times over the legal blood-alcohol limit when he drove into a fatal head-on collision on Minnesota Highway 13 just north of Albert Lea, a State Patrol spokeswoman said today.

On the rainy night on April 14, Skov was driving a 1993 Buick LeSabre northbound just after 10:30 p.m. when he crossed into the southbound lane and crashed into a 2008 Cadillac CTS. The driver and two passengers in the Cadillac were all treated at the hospital and released the next day.

Though the State Patrol had previously announced that Skov, 47, had "acute alcohol intoxication" at the time of the crash, his BAL hadn't been disclosed until today. Skov owned the Bend in the Road bar in Manchester, Minnesota.

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A man died this morning after jumping from the Franklin Bridge.

In March, we reported on a disturbing string of five suicides-by-traffic that took place around the Twin Cities this winter.

Now, with summer on the horizon, the suicidal are apparently shifting their tactics.

Around 6:15 a.m. today, a man jumped to his death from Minneapolis's Franklin Bridge into the Mississippi River. The incident marked the third time in the past week men had taken their lives by jumping from bridges in or near downtown into the Mighty Mississippi.

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Anousone Phanthavong's family has settled with Amy Senser

Joe and Amy Senser have settled the wrongful death lawsuit against them over the hit-and-run death of Anousone Phanthavong, according to the victim's family's attorney.

Terms of the settlement have not been publicly released, but the settlement comes a day after Amy Senser was found guilty of criminal vehicular homicide in a Hennepin County court of law.

"No financial settlement will ever replace what the family has lost," says a statement released by the Phanthavong family's attorneys. "They will forever be without his kindness, generosity, and companionship."

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Amy Senser will testify in her defense

Amy Senser will testify during her trial on criminal vehicular homicide charges, her defense attorney revealed during opening statements.

Prosecutor Deborah Russell and defense attorney Eric Nelson kept their opening arguments brief this afternoon, with each side presenting a bare outline of their cases.

Russell revealed that Joe Senser's daughter from a previous marriage, Brittani Senser, prompted Amy to reveal herself to authorities as the driver who killed Anousone Phanthavong last August. Brittani was concerned that she was a suspect in the case so she called Nelson September 1 and said he should tell the State Patrol who was driving that night "or I will."

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Anousone Phanthavong's niece speaks out before Amy Senser's trial

For Anousone Phanthavong's parents, justice will come once they reach the "peace of mind that their son just didn't die like roadkill on the street."

Cindi Phanthavong, Anousone's niece, spoke to reporters this afternoon about her dead uncle, who she described as a quiet, "hard-working man" who would do "everything" for his family.

Amy Senser, wife of Minnesota Vikings star Joe Senser, will stand trial next week on charges of criminal vehicular homicide for running over Phanthavong in her Mercedes last August.

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Derres King was committed as mentally ill and dangerous this week.

If the Hennepin County mental health commitment system worked properly, a guard at the Public Safety Facility might still be alive today.

Last December, a Hennepin County jailer was bitten by an inmate named Derres King. King suffers from severe mental illness that had gone untreated in jail. He is also infected with HIV.

Because the bite broke his skin, the guard started on preventative HIV treatment. The side effects were extreme, and debilitating for the 50-year-old jailer. Last month, the guard died.

"Though the exact cause of death has not yet been released by the medical examiner," writes Judge Jay Quam, who presides over the civil commitment court, "it is fair to conclude that the bite Mr. King inflicted contributed to [the guard's] death."

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Prosper's life came to a tragic, flukey end yesterday.

What a tragedy.

Medard Prosper, 19, lived through more than most of us could ever imagine -- he parents were killed in 2007 during the Democratic Republic of Congo's bloody civil war. His parents dead, Prosper and his six siblings embarked on a 500-mile journey to a refugee camp in Tanzania. Two younger sisters and a younger brother died in the process.

Thanks to the United Nations, Prosper and his surviving siblings ended up relocating to Minnesota. Prosper emerged as a standout, scholarship-winning student at St. Paul's Highland Park High School, where he was set to graduate this June. But yesterday, his promising life was cut short when he ran himself over with his own car and died.

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Chief Greg Hestness at the press conference this afternoon.

Authorities are treating the death of Gophers linebacker Gary Tinsley as "suspicious," University of Minnesota Police Chief Greg Hestness said at a press conference this afternoon.

Hestness says there was nothing about the scene to suggest a crime had been committed, but "the death of a young athlete is out of the ordinary."

"You only get one opportunity to handle a crime scene properly," he says, "so we're treating it as a suspicious death."

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​On a mid-November morning last year, as the sun was still coming up, a woman wearing a long, dark jacket wandered onto Interstate 94.

It was a horrifying sight to drivers on their commute to work, many of whom had to veer quickly out of the way to avoid hitting her.

"Everyone was kind of swerving a little bit and then getting back in their lanes," driver Stephen Feldman told us in an interview after the incident. "You try to look back but you can't really see anything because it's chaos."

Then the woman lay down, and was killed by oncoming traffic.

It was a chilling incident. Not only was a woman dead, but an innocent driver had killed her. Unfortunately, similar apparent suicides play out on Minnesota highways a few times every year, says Lt. Eric Roeske, spokesman for the State Patrol.

"It's most difficult on the scene for the person who hit them," says Roeske. "They don't know what to do. They're not guilty of a crime or anything. You just try to help them the best you can, and send them on their way."

But recently, it's been even more common. Including the tragedy in November, the State Patrol has seen at least five similar incidents in as many months. More >>

Timothy LaMere is convicted of providing a lethal overdose of 2-CE to his friend.

​Timothy LaMere, the 22-year-old charged in the first-known 2-CE overdose death, agreed to a state-maximum 10-year prison sentence in court Thursday.

LaMere was charged with third-degree murder about a year ago after supplying the synthetic drug to a group of friends, causing 11 overdoses, including the death of LaMere's friend Trevor Robinson-Davis, a 19-year-old father.

According to the original charges, LaMere showed up at a house party during spring break and offered friends what he called "2-CI." He told everyone the grayish powder was a hallucinogen, and snorted a line. At least 10 others took the drug as well.

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