Pizza delivery man who hit, killed pedestrian in Hopkins sentenced

By KSTP

Cole Venables (Hennepin County Jail)

A pizza delivery man who said he fell asleep behind the wheel before hitting and killing a pedestrian in Hopkins last year has been sentenced.

According to court records, 28-year-old Cole Leon Venables was sentenced Thursday to one year at the Hennepin County Workhouse, with 92 days of credit for time already served. He also received five years of supervised probation but had a 57-month prison sentence stayed for five years.

According to a criminal complaint, on April 16, 2021, police found a woman pinned under the Dodge Charger Venables was inside. A witness told police the Charger had gone onto the curb, hit a light pole and then ran over the victim as she was walking. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

The complaint states Venables told investigators he fell asleep before loud noises woke him up. He also admitted to taking prescription Suboxone earlier, three or four benzodiazepines early that morning and Xanax at the start of his shift, adding that he illegally bought the pills. A drug evaluator found Venables was under the influence of a narcotic analgesic.

Venables also said his manager had tried to send him home from work before the crash because he was “too tired.”