Driver involved in 2023 fatal Amish buggy crash files petition to enter guilty plea
Samantha Jo Petersen, 37, is facing 17 charges, including six counts of criminal vehicular homicide, six counts of criminal vehicular operation and five counts related to traffic charges. She initially faced 21 total charges; however, the Fillmore County Attorney dismissed the four charges involving the element that Petersen was under a combination of methamphetamine and THC for lack of probable cause.
Petersen and her twin sister, Sarah Beth Petersen, are accused of attempting to switch places after Samantha's vehicle struck a two-wheeled horse-drawn buggy at 8:25 a.m. on Sept. 25, 2023, on Fillmore County Road 1 near the intersection with County Road 102. As a result of the crash, two children and a horse were killed. Two more children were injured.
In her petition to enter a guilty plea, Samantha plans to plead guilty to one count of criminal vehicular homicide and one count of criminal vehicular operation.
According to the court filing, she admitted to driving on the day of the crash after consuming methamphetamine and that "it affected my ability to operate a motor vehicle in a safe manner."
"As a result, I crashed my vehicle into the back of an Amish buggy," Petersen wrote in the petition.
If the court grants the defense a mitigated dispositional departure, Petersen would serve 364 days in jail on work release. An 80-month prison sentence would be stayed, or delayed.
A denial of the departure would mean Petersen would serve 4 years in prison.
Her twin sister, Sarah Petersen, was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 120 days of house arrest after pleading guilty to two counts of criminal vehicular operation.
The next hearing for Samantha Petersen is scheduled for July 11.
Witnesses who first arrived at the crash told a captain with the Fillmore County Sheriff's Office that they saw a woman they presumed involved in the crash on the scene on a phone. Later, another woman appeared at the scene who looked similar to the first woman, but wearing different clothes.
As Sarah Petersen sat in the squad car, the car's audio recording equipment picked up a conversation between the sisters. The two discussed how law enforcement could not tell them apart.
"There's no way they would ever know the difference between the two of us so they can't tell," Sarah Petersen could be heard saying.
In a search of Samantha Petersen's phone, investigators found text messages from Samantha to friends including one where she wrote: "Made Sarah come and take the fall for it so I wouldn't go to prison."
Samantha Petersen had also used her phone to search "What happens if you get in an accident with an Amish buggy and kill two people," "how to lock an iphone cops have," and "if you hit a buggy and kill two people are you going to prison?"
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