Nov. 11 — PRESTON, Minn. — The Fillmore County Prosecutor’s Office argued in court documents that 18 charges filed against a woman accused of killing two Amish children in 2023 should not be dismissed.

Samantha Jo Petersen, 36, faces a total of 21 charges in the case, including eight counts of criminal homicide; eight counts of criminal vehicle operation; two serious offenses of impaired driving; two counts of failure to provide proof of insurance and careless driving; and a petty misdemeanor for speeding.

She is accused of hitting an Amish buggy with a vehicle in September 2023. The crash killed two children and a horse. Two other children were also injured. She is also accused of trying to switch identities with her twin sister Sarah Beth Petersen, who was also charged in connection with the case.

The defense filed a 22-page brief on Oct. 19 asking the court to dismiss the first 18 counts due to “lack of probable cause.” A search warrant for Samantha’s phone and blood was executed nearly 37 hours after the crash, according to court documents. The blood test showed the presence of THC and methamphetamine.

Defense attorney Carson Heefner argued in the brief that “the search warrant lacked probable cause, the nighttime search was not warranted, the warrant was overbroad and its execution exceeded its scope.”

“There is no possible way to determine whether the defendant was under the influence of that substance 37 hours prior to the blood draw,” Heefner wrote. “It’s literally impossible.”

The defense also argued that the recorded conversation of the twins in the squad car should not be allowed in court.

After the accident, Fillmore County Deputy Don Kullot interviewed Sarah in his car. During a preliminary hearing in September, Kullot testified that he got out of his squad car to attend to other matters and left a tape recorder on with the intention of continuing his conversation. Sarah rolled down the window to talk to Samantha. The recorder picked up a conversation between the sisters. According to the criminal complaint, Sarah can be heard saying, “I think one of the guys is on me, but I don’t really care…” and “There’s no way they’d ever know the difference between the two. us, so I can’t say.”

According to Heefner, the conversation was recorded without the consent of either sister. He said it was “completely unreasonable to assume” Samantha would sit next to her sister and not have a conversation, claiming that anyone in Sarah’s position would “consider the conversation to be private”.

Fillmore County District Attorney Brett Corson argued in a 41-page brief filed Nov. 4 that the conversation between the Petersen sisters should not be suppressed “since it was not intentionally recorded” and that Sarah agreed to original recording with Kullot. Corson continued, adding that “there was no reasonable expectation of privacy” for either sister.

Sarah, who volunteered to sit in the squad car for an interview with Kullot, watched the deputy take a digital recorder and place it in the vehicle’s cup holder, the charging filing said. During the interview, Samantha “hovered around” the band’s car, the prosecution claimed. Sarah did not object to the recording of their conversation, the brief said.

“Kullot did not intend to record the conversation between defendant and Sarah because he could not reasonably anticipate that defendant would intentionally project his voice into his squad car for the purpose of speaking to Sarah,” Corson wrote.

After the crash, both sisters “voluntarily” provided information to law enforcement, including that Sarah was the alleged driver, Corson claimed. “Consent is evident” because both Petersen sisters approached law enforcement first, the document said.

According to Corson, there was probable cause for the search warrants because there was a “fair probability” that Samantha’s blood contained a controlled substance and that her phone contained evidence of a crime.

Two witnesses provided phone and text messages to law enforcement from Samantha. In the messages, she admitted to being the driver, killing two children and not being sober, the brief said.

Corson said the application establishes probability because Samantha Petersen was the registered owner of the vehicle, both sisters were at the scene of the accident, Samantha told a co-worker she killed the two children while taking methamphetamine, and the number for the 911 call matched the number Samantha. .

“All of this information in the warrant application establishes beyond doubt a fair probability that the items to be searched or the evidence to be seized are related to the criminal vehicular homicide and efforts to deceive law enforcement as to the true identity of the driver,” Corson wrote. .

The defense’s motion seeks to dismiss almost all of the charges that showed Samantha was under the influence at the time of the crash due to a lack of probable cause. Corson argues that “there is ample evidence in the form of BCA testing, the defendant’s statements that she would self-check for treatment, Sarah’s statements that she did not realize how bad the defendant was and that the defendant needed to go to treatment and the defendant . driving behavior on the day of the accident.”

BCA testing corroborates Samantha’s admission of being high, Corson argued. In addition to the two witnesses, Samantha sent a message to a man on Snapchat to say she was checking herself in for treatment, the court document states.

“Why go to treatment if you weren’t high when you killed those two Amish kids?” Corson wrote.

Corson requested that the court deny the defendant’s motion and set a date for a hearing and trial. No hearings have been scheduled since Monday, November 11.

According to initial reports from the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office, at 8:25 a.m. on September 25, 2023, a 2005 Toyota 4Runner traveling southbound on Fillmore County Road 1 rear-ended and struck an Amish two-wheeler, pulled of horses. The accident took place near the intersection with County Road 102.

Seven-year-old Wilma Miller and 11-year-old Irma Miller died in the crash. Their siblings, Alan Miller, 9, and Rose Miller, 13, were injured. A horse also died as a result of the impact.

The 18-page criminal complaint lays out a complicated set of events at the scene of the accident.

According to court documents, a captain with the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office spoke with a witness at the scene who said he saw a woman he believed to be the driver on the phone calling 911. The man described woman as a “blonde woman wearing a Hy-Vee Employee Shirt that was black and red.”

Another witness at the scene described the woman he believed to be the driver as “wearing black clothes, no glasses, really light blonde hair, she was taller”. Later, the second witness noticed that another woman who resembled the first woman, but wearing different clothes, appeared at the scene.

“The second lady was wearing a sleeveless top and looked slightly smaller than the first lady. (The second witness) was not sure how the second lady got there; she just showed up. Leroy saw the second lady hug the first lady and heard the first lady say she didn’t see them until it was too late,” the complaint states.

Court documents say Sarah Beth Petersen identified herself as the driver in the crash.

While at the scene of the accident, the sound of the squad car picked up a conversation between the sisters as Sarah sat in the vehicle. The two discussed how the law enforcement officers could not tell them apart.

During the recording, the complaint says, Sarah can be heard saying, “I think one of the guys is with me, but I don’t really care,” and “There’s no way they’d ever know the difference between the two. us, so I can’t say.”

After a deputy read Sarah her Miranda rights, Sarah said she “didn’t feel like she did anything wrong, but she knows she hit somebody, she killed somebody, and she’s going to have to live with that for the rest of her life.” .

She later said she wanted to speak to a lawyer. His phone was confiscated and entered into evidence.

While at the scene, Samantha asked to get an ID under the floor mat from the silver SUV involved in the accident. Inside the silver SUV, a deputy observed burned marijuana stubs and “a small box commonly used to hold marijuana.” The vehicle was later towed and inventoried. A red T-shirt and black blouse worn by Hy-Vee employees were located inside the silver SUV.

Both sisters worked for Hy-Vee, according to court documents.

An HR employee told law enforcement that Samantha left for work at 7:47 a.m. on September 25, 2023. Around 10 a.m. that day, Samantha texted HR to ask HR to call her .

Samantha told the employee that she was on methamphetamine and that she had killed two Amish children after crashing into their stroller.

“I— up. I just killed two Amish people,” Samantha said, according to court documents.

HR asked Samantha if she had been drinking, and Samantha said, “No, (HR), you know it’s not my first choice…I’m on meth.”

According to the complaint, Samantha told the human resources employee that she left the scene after Sarah arrived. Police also reviewed security camera footage taken at Hy-Vee earlier in the day of the crash that showed Samantha driving the vehicle that later crashed into the buggy.

The store manager said Samantha texted them and HR on September 25, 2023, “saying she messed up and was under the influence of meth at the time of the accident.” When asked why Sarah would take the fall for Samantha, the manager said they believed “it was because Samantha took care of Sarah’s kids while Sarah was in prison and now, she feels she has to help her on Samantha”.

The phone number used to call 911 is the same number Samantha gave to law enforcement at the scene.

A search warrant for a blood draw and a full set of fingerprints for Samantha was requested and granted by a judge on September 26, 2023. The results showed the presence of methamphetamine, amphetamine and Delta-9 THC.

Law enforcement also spoke to a social worker who had a conversation with Sarah’s 13-year-old daughter. The girl allegedly told the social worker that her mother was not the driver. The child was worried that when she got home later that day, her mother and aunt would be gone.

The criminal complaint says a review of text messages exchanged between Samantha and another person from Sept. 25 to Sept. 26, 2023, showed that Samantha said she “hit that Amish buggy and killed two people” and “did it on Sarah to come in there and take the fall. for this, so I don’t go to jail.”

According to the complaint, Samantha also searched for “What happens if you crash an Amish buggy and kill two people,” “how to lock an iPhone that the police have,” “if you hit a buggy and kill two people , are you going to jail?” and similar searches.

The Minnesota State Patrol concluded that the driver of the silver Toyota 4Runner SUV was traveling between 63 mph and 71 mph at the time of the crash. The speed limit on County Road 1 is 55 mph. Road visibility was clear for 1,452 feet before the accident site and there were no obstructions.

Shortly after the date of the accident, both Samantha and Sarah Petersen moved out of their Spring Valley residence, according to court documents. They are believed to live in the Kellogg area.

Sarah Petersen faces 16 felony charges. She is scheduled to appear in court for a settlement conference on Dec. 9.