Pine County woman to spend years in prison for role in 2022 double-fatal crash

A Park Rapids woman convicted of all six charges filed against her for a double fatal crash in 2022 will be spending the next few years in prison.

On Thursday, Judge Krista Martin sentenced Anastasia Nicole Nelson, 21, to more than five years in prison. Nelson was handed the 69-month sentence with five days of credit allowed.

As reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS in late May, a jury found Nelson guilty of four counts of criminal vehicular homicide and two counts of criminal vehicular operation. Two of the vehicular homicide charges were modified by having a blood alcohol concentration of at least .08 within two hours of driving.

Initially, Nelson was charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and one count of criminal vehicular operation, but an amended complaint was filed last month, adding the three other charges.

As previously reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, the crash happened shortly before 2 a.m. on Oct. 15, 2022.

Charging documents state a woman called police after Nelson arrived at her home, saying a crash had happened and that she had been drinking alcohol at a party.

According to the criminal complaint, the woman who called police was told by Nelson that three people were in the ditch, but that only one of the three people was talking.

Deputies had trouble finding the crash scene initially, but later found Nelson at the end of the reporting woman’s driveway, where she told them two vehicles were at the crash and the second one had left, according to the complaint. Nelson then directed a deputy to the crash scene, located at the intersection of Pokegama Lake Road and Fairway Road SW.

The document later identifies the two people who died as 20-year-old Kiya Laural Joyce Johnson and 18-year-old Deandre Thomas Foss Sydney, adding one of them was partially decapitated with a part of their head found about 30 feet south of a vehicle, identified as a Pontiac. The third person, identified as an 18-year-old man, said his chest and back hurt, and was flown to North Memorial Hospital.

Deputies said they found and followed tire tracks, where they determined the car hit a fiber optics box and a power pole support cable before hitting a large tree, where a human bone and glass fragments were lodged.

A blood alcohol test showed a percentage of 0.09, which the complaint said was taken around 4:15 a.m. that day. The complaint goes on to say that after leaving the hospital, Nelson told deputies she had been driving for a quarter mile but was “flashed on by another vehicle, and she pulled over due to swerving and knew she couldn’t drive.

After pulling over, the document goes on to say that Nelson told deputies she “should not have been driving” after she was told the condition of her friends.