Man who fatally hit 8-year-old with vehicle while on meth pleads guilty

A 48-year-old man has pleaded guilty in connection with a crash that killed an 8-year-old girl who was riding her bike in August of 2022.

Joseph Ray Jacobson pleaded guilty to one count of criminal vehicular homicide. He was originally charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and in exchange for his guilty plea, one of the counts will be dismissed and Jacobson will receive a maximum sentence of over four years (57 months).

As previously reported, the crash occurred around 8 p.m. on Aug. 22, 2022, near the intersection of Dakota Trail and Orion Road in Prior Lake on the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Reservation.

RELATED: 8-year-old hit, killed while biking in Prior Lake; driver arrested

The girl’s mother told police that her daughter, Chyanne Rios, wanted to ride her bike to a nearby convenience store. The mother agreed but followed Chyanne in her car to watch her.

According to a criminal complaint, as Chyanna crossed the intersection, a man driving a GMC Denali, identified as Jacobson, ran a stop sign and hit her.

The driver of the Denali, identified as Jacobson, told officers “the child came out of nowhere” as he was stopped at the stop sign. When asked if he was using his cellphone when the crash happened, he replied, “I think I was,” the criminal complaint states.

Surveillance video showed the Denali never even slowed at the stop sign, according to the complaint. Additionally, a blood draw was taken and showed Jacobson had meth in his system.