Teenager faces homicide charge after fatal distracted driving crash

An 18-year-old in Minnesota has been charged with criminal vehicular homicide following a devastating three-car collision that claimed the life of a grandmother.

The teenager, who was 17 at the time of the incident on 23 December 2025, was formally charged in Hennepin County Juvenile Court on 31 March 2026.

According to the criminal complaint, the youth was driving a BMW sedan at a high rate of speed when it rear-ended a Jeep SUV that had slowed to turn.

The impact pushed the Jeep into oncoming traffic, where it was struck by a Ford SUV. The driver of the Jeep, 70-year-old Linda Jean Rodenberg Davis, was tragically pronounced dead at the scene, just 40 yards from her family home.

The collision also resulted in a medical emergency for the 36-year-old driver of the Ford, who was pregnant at the time.

She was rushed to a nearby hospital for an emergency C-section; authorities have confirmed that both the mother and her baby survived the ordeal.

While the teenager initially claimed the vehicle's brakes were "slow," a police investigation involving a warrant for the teen's phone allegedly revealed that they had been "interacting with an application" in the minutes leading up to the crash.

A witness following the BMW also provided video evidence showing the car failed to decelerate before the impact.

The Davis family described Linda as the "heartbeat" of their home in a moving tribute following her sudden passing. The teenager remains out of custody pending a court hearing scheduled for Monday, 27 April 2026.