59-year-old enters guilty plea in drunken driving crash that killed passenger
A 59-year-old man has entered a guilty plea in connection with a 2021 drunken driving crash that killed 52-year-old Tou Moua, who was a passenger in the vehicle on the way home from a funeral.
Chue Asham Yang was originally charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide.
According to court documents, in exchange for him pleading guilty to one count, the other will be dismissed.
As previously reported, Maplewood officers responded a crash just before midnight on Dec. 10, 2021 on Highway 61 near County Road B. A car with whiskey plates had jumped the curb and crossed the median into oncoming traffic, hitting a truck, according to court documents.
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Two good Samaritans had pulled Moua from the car and were giving him CPR, but he was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Moua’s sister, another passenger in the car, told police that she, Moua and Yang had been drinking at a funeral prior to the crash, according to prosecutors. Moua had not been wearing a seat belt.
Yang and Moua’s sister were brought to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and a state trooper noticed that Yang smelled of alcohol. A blood sample obtained by search warrant two hours after the crash determined Yang’s blood-alcohol content to be 0.146.
Yang also has three DWI convictions dating back to 2008, court documents state.