MINNEAPOLIS — Two years after five young women were killed instantly in a vicious car crash, a Hennepin County jury found Derrick John Thompson guilty Friday of five counts of third-degree murder and 10 counts of criminal vehicular homicide for their deaths.

The families of Sabiriin Ali, Sahra Gesaade, Salma Abdikadir, Sagal Hersi and Siham Adam packed the courtroom, as they had for the entire trial, as Judge Carolina Lamas read the verdict. After an initial sigh of relief spread through the room, quiet, only muffled tears were heard as Lamas read a litany of guilty verdicts on all 15 counts.

Thompson was brought into the courtroom by three Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies. He stood stoically throughout and walked out quietly with his hands in his pockets.

The verdict capped an emotional trial that showcased intense video footage from the crash and its aftermath and difficult testimony from family members of the five women who died.

It provided vindication for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, which had aggressively pursued accountability from Thompson, 29, since the crash sent shockwaves through Minnesota and devastated the state’s Somali community in June of 2023.

As family members left the courtroom many paused to hug Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Paige Starkey, who delivered closing statements on Thursday.

After the verdict was read, the jury was sent back to deliberate whether Thompson’s behavior should make him subject to an upward durational departure from Minnesota sentencing guidelines.

The five women were all between the ages of 17-20 and had been getting henna tattoos and hanging out in anticipation of a friend’s wedding the next day. After leaving the Karmel Mall, their Honda Civic drove through a green light at the intersection of E. Lake Street and 2nd Ave. S. in Minneapolis.

Thompson, the son of former DFL state Rep. John Thompson, had been hurtling northbound on Interstate 35W in a rented Cadillac Escalade. He took the Lake Street exit at more than 100 miles per hour, blew a red light and hit the intersection at the exact same moment.

The Civic was left a tangled, unrecognizable mass of metal and cloth.

Along with the murder charges, Thompson was convicted of 10 counts of criminal vehicular homicide, five for operating a vehicle in a grossly negligent manner and five for leaving the scene of an accident.

Assistant Hennepin County Attorneys James Hanneman, Joe Paquette and Starkey diligently laid out the case that convicted Thompson. They proved he rented the car, was in the driver’s seat at the time of the crash and immediately ran.

During closing arguments Thursday, Starkey played police footage from the scene where Thompson complained about his Friday night being ruined.

“Derrick Thompson only cared about Derrick Thompson,” she said.

Thompson’s attorney, Tyler Bliss, attempted to poke holes in the investigation throughout the trial — especially around the lack of an investigation into what role Thompson’s brother, Damarco, might have played in the crash.

Damarco provided the most dramatic moment of the trial, when he was called at the last-minute and compelled to testify against his brother. Damarco told jurors he never drove the SUV that night and the last person he saw behind the wheel was Derrick.

It was a crucial piece of testimony and his believability was vital to proving the murder charges, which are rare in car crashes.

Bliss said at closing arguments Thursday that Damarco had provided some of “the most self-serving testimony I’ve ever encountered in a case.”

He also argued that even if Derrick was inside the car, his behavior was reckless but did not rise to the level of murder.

The jury disagreed.

The decision to stand trial was a calculated risk for Thompson. Last year, prosecutors offered him a deal: If he pleaded guilty to five counts of criminal vehicular manslaughter, he would be sentenced to between 32 and 38 years in prison. In Minnesota, he would have had the opportunity for supervised release after 21-25 years with good behavior.

Weeks later, the state amended the charges to include five counts of third-degree murder.

According to data from the Fourth Judicial District, there have only been three convictions for third-degree murder involving a car crash in Hennepin County in the last decade and only once did the conviction come from a jury.

Sentencing in Thompson’s case will now fall to Judge Carolina Lamas, but the county is likely to seek consecutive sentences for each victim. Thompson is also awaiting federal sentencing after being convicted by a jury last year on drug and gun charges related to this case.

A Glock 40 handgun and more than 2,000 blue pills containing fentanyl, 14 grams of powdered fentanyl and 35 grams of cocaine were seized from the Escalade.

While the trial provided victims’ families closure around Thompson’s role in the death of the five women, it also opened wounds.

Video of the crash was played extensively. CT scans from an autopsy of the girls’ bodies was shown and an assistant medical examiner testified about the physical destruction the crash caused.

In trying to counter that pain, prosecutors used the opportunity to bring Thompson’s victims to life.

Over five days of witness testimony, a family member of each girl testified about who they were. It created an emotional reckoning in the room. People in the gallery sobbed, passed tissues, bent their heads to their knees.

On Tuesday, the state called 20-year-old University of St. Thomas student Munir Abdikadir.

Salma was his older sister. They were just two years apart.

They went to Edina High School and he would lie on her bed every night and tell her about his day.

He told the court about what his sister had planned for her life.

She was a psychology major at St. Paul College. She wanted to become a therapist. She was a natural storyteller.

“She was very good with people,” Munir said.

The night she died, his phone rang. He had just finished his evening prayers. It was a friend calling who was known to be playful. He was talking about a crash and Munir thought it was a joke. He hung up. The number called back, but his friend’s father was on the phone. “I remember it was an adult talking,” Munir said. “I knew it had to be serious.”

He walked downstairs and told his mother, “Something has happened to Salma.”

“I was trying to calm her down,” Munir recalled. “My brothers were surrounding her.”

He went upstairs to wake his father.

As the family drove toward Lake Street, they were searching for Salma using her shared iPhone location. They knew something was wrong.

When they arrived on the scene. Munir had to drag his mother out of the car. “I remember she kept falling on the floor.”

His father stood in a corner and broke down.

“My parents are the strongest people I know,” Munir said. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Later, after the family finished dawn prayer, he heard Salma had been taken to the medical examiner in Eden Prairie. Munir didn’t want to go home, so he went there.

“My brain was telling me, ‘She’s still there, she’s alive, there’s no way she’s dead.’”

He banged on the doors of the facility. Staff came outside. He begged to be let in. They told him he couldn’t see his sister. They tried to empathize with him and calm him down.

The sun was rising.

He went to leave and saw a meadow in the distance. He walked to it, sat down in the grass and crossed his legs. He began talking to himself and to his sister.

“I never talked to myself this much,” Munir said. “I remember asking myself questions. I was asking questions of my sister saying, ‘Salma, Salma where are you? I need you.’ I remember saying, ‘Where are you?’”

He leaned forward and cried quietly, then dried his eyes.

He told the jury, his family will never be the same.

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