10 months in jail, 10 years probation for driver in fatal Rosemount crash involving 1,100-pound boulder
Joe Czeck[Dakota County]
A Hastings man was sentenced Tuesday in a 2018 criminal vehicular homicide case involving the deaths of two women after a 1,100-pound boulder fell from the man's truck and hit them in Rosemount.
According to the Dakota County Attorney's Office, Joseph Paul Czeck, 34, was sentenced to 10 months in jail and up to 10 years of probation.
Czeck pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in December after pleading not guilty in May.
According to a criminal complaint, authorities were called to Rich Valley Boulevard in Rosemount on July 9, 2018.
Surveillance video from a nearby business showed a truck carrying large boulders without straps. When the truck crossed railroad tracks, one of the boulders flew out of the back of the truck and crashed through the windshield of a vehicle, killing Karen Jean Christiansen, 67, and her daughter Jena Helene Christiansen, 32.
It was later determined Czeck was the truck's driver. Czeck said he noticed his truck felt different after he went over some railroad tracks. He acknowledged stopping a short distance down the road, where he waited for about seven minutes, but did not go back even after realizing something was wrong.
Police tracked Czeck down two days after the incident.
More from KSTP.com:
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“We are pleased to have brought this man to justice for this easily preventable crime on our roads which tragically claimed two lives in our community," Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said in a statement Tuesday.
As part of his sentence, Czeck was ordered to pay restitution among other conditions.