Star Tribune
Man pleads guilty to killing two people in crash while racing his sister
A Burnsville man pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of third-degree murder in connection with a fatal crash in April 2021, when he hit and killed two people while street racing his sister.
Leon Bond, now 19, was 17 at the time of the crash and was charged as a juvenile. He will face a Jan. 23 hearing and will receive a stayed, more serious adult sentence that will not be enforced unless he violates the terms of his juvenile disposition.
The two killed were 22-year-olds Dalton Lee Ford of Burnsville and Tayler Nicole Garza of Woodbury.
According to the criminal complaint against Bond’s 20-year-old sister, Camille Dennis-Bond:
Bond was traveling east on Country Road 42 in Burnsville the morning of April 4, 2021, between Burnsville Parkway and Newton Avenue in a white Chrysler 200. He was racing side-by-side with a Chevy Malibu driven by Dennis-Bond.
Ford, driving west on County Road 42 in a Honda CR-V, pulled into the left turn lane to cross over to Newton Avenue, with Garza in the front passenger seat. Bond T-boned Ford’s vehicle, causing it to split in half. Ford and Garza died at the scene. Bond’s sister did not strike the Honda.
Both Bond and a twin sister who was in his passenger seat were taken to the hospital with significant injuries. The twin’s injuries included fractures and she underwent surgeries and a six-week hospitalization.
A State Patrol analysis of the crash concluded that Bond’s vehicle was traveling between 93 and 100 mph at the time of impact, and was touching 114 mph five seconds before the crash. The speed limit on that stretch is 50 mph.
Bond told law enforcement that he and his older sister were at a stoplight before the crash, where he told her he wanted to see whose car could get to 50 mph the fastest. He added that he saw the Honda before it turned, and that he accelerated to try and get around it but was unsuccessful.
The Dakota County Attorney’s Office sought to try Bond in adult court but was denied.
A jury found Dennis-Bond guilty Dec. 14. She was convicted on two counts of third-degree murder, two counts of vehicular homicide, one count of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm, and one count of careless driving. She is set to be sentenced March 24.
Reporter Paul Walsh contributed to this article.
DULUTH – The Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments will make upgrades to the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge in the summer of 2025, in preparation for the structure to become the premiere route between this city and Superior during reconstruction of the Blatnik Bridge.
Built in 1961, the Blatnik Bridge carries 33,000 vehicles per day along Interstate 535 and Hwy. 53. It will be entirely rebuilt, starting in 2027, with the help of $1 billion in federal funding announced earlier this year. MnDOT and WisDOT are splitting the remaining costs of the project, about $4 million each.
According to MnDOT, projects on the Bong Bridge will include spot painting, concrete surface repairs to the bridge abutments, concrete sealer on the deck, replacing rubber strip seal membranes on the main span’s joints and replacing light poles on the bridge and its points of entry. It’s expected to take two months, transportation officials said during a recent meeting at the Superior Public Library.
During this time there will be occasional lane closures, detours at the off-ramps, and for about three weeks the sidewalk path alongside the bridge will be closed.
The Bong Bridge, which crosses the St. Louis River, opened to traffic in 1985 and is the lesser-used of the two bridges. Officials said they want to keep maintenance to a minimum on the span during the Blatnik project, which is expected to take four years.
Red Wing will celebrate the grand opening of its first permanent set of pickleball courts next week with an “inaugural play” on the six courts at Colvill Park on the banks of the Mississippi, between a couple of marinas and next to the aquatic center.
Among the first to get to play on the new courts will be David Anderson, who brought pickleball to the local YMCA in 2008, before the nationwide pickleball craze took hold, and Denny Yecke, at 92 the oldest pickleball player in Red Wing.
The inaugural play begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday, with a rain date of the next day. Afterward will be food and celebration at the Colvill Park Courtyard building.
Tim Sletten, the city’s former police chief, discovered America’s fastest-growing sport a decade ago after he retired. With fellow members of the Red Wing Pickleball Group, he’d play indoors at the local YMCA or outdoors at a local school, on courts made for other sports. But they didn’t have a permanent place, so they approached the city about building one.
When a city feasibility study came up with a high cost, about $350,000, Sletten’s group got together to raise money.
The courts are even opening ahead of schedule, originally set for 2025.
REDWOOD FALLS, MINN. – A truck crashing into a school bus left nine with minor injuries Wednesday morning in rural Redwood County, a statement from the Redwood County Sheriff’s office said.
The bus driver, serving the Wabasso Public School District, failed to yield when entering the intersection of County Road 7 and 280th Street, the statement said.
Deputies received word of the crash around 8:15 a.m. and identified the bus driver as Edward Aslesen, 72, of Milroy.
The nine injured passengers on the bus were transported to local hospitals, the statement said.
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