SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Federal prosecutors warned jurors that the video they were about to see would be jarring before pushing play during opening statements in Derrick Thompson's federal trial.
The surveillance video, complete with sound, showed a car slowly approaching a green light at an intersection. Then an SUV suddenly torpedoes into the camera's view from the left, running a red light, and crushing the smaller vehicle.
Five young Somali women inside the smaller vehicle were killed instantly.
"Jesus," someone in the courtroom gallery uttered after the moment of impact.
While that video is by far the most dramatic piece of evidence the jury will see in this trial, attorneys on both sides say it is not the most important. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Calhoun-Lopez and defense attorney Matthew Deates both told jurors it is not this jury's job to analyze the crash itself.
"This is a case about an armed drug dealer," Calhoun-Lopez said. "We are here today because (the) defendant crashed that car carrying 2,000 fentanyl pills, cocaine, fentanyl powder, and a loaded gun."
Calhoun-Lopez explained Derrick Thompson's subsequent fleeing and lying to police following the deadly crash proves the gun and drugs were his. In addition, DNA testing links Thompson to the items.
But the defense offered the jury an alternative theory that was absent from the public realm until recently, when it was revealed that Thompson had a passenger in the rental car - his brother Damarco Thompson.
"The drugs and the gun belonged to Damarco Thompson, not Derrick," Deates insisted.
Deates told jurors that Damarco is the flashier of the Thompson brothers and that he likes colorful, flashy things like the blue cap police found on the passenger side of the Escalade. Deates added that the colorful wrap on the handgun matches those tastes and that the spot where police found the bag containing the gun and drugs also points to the defendant's brother. The bag was located under Damarco's blue hat.
"That is the definition of confirmation bias. It’s tunnel vision. It does not make it right. This caused the government to charge the wrong person. But you - as the jury - gets to weigh the evidence and decide," Deates said in his opening statement.
Following opening statements by both sides, prosecutors began calling witnesses, starting with officers who were present at the crime scene.
Damarco Thompson is not charged in this case but has prior drug and gun convictions.
Derrick Thompson also faces trial at the state level, where he is charged with 15 criminal counts that include third-degree murder and criminal vehicular homicide.