The sentencing decision
Ramsey County District Judge Timothy Mulrooney sentenced Sanjit Singh, 56, to one year in the county workhouse and 10 years of probation for the December 29, 2024, crash that killed 18-year-old Dylan James Severson on Shepard Road in St. Paul. Singh had pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation. The Pioneer Press reported that the Minnesota sentencing guidelines called for a four-year prison term, but Mulrooney granted Singh's request for a downward departure.
A central part of the ruling was Minnesota's Veterans Restorative Justice Act. The 2021 law creates a sentencing pathway for eligible veterans whose offenses are connected to service-related conditions, according to the Veterans Defense Project. Under the law, a judge determines eligibility and may impose probation, treatment and other conditions instead of immediately accepting a guilty plea and entering a conviction. The Pioneer Press reported that Mulrooney found Singh had a qualifying condition tied to his military service and that the offense resulted from it.
The legal arguments
Defense attorney Jack Rice also relied on the so-called Trog factors, a Minnesota sentencing framework focused on whether a defendant is particularly suited to probation. The factors can include remorse, criminal history, age, family support and conduct before the court. Guidance from the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission states that ordinary amenability to probation is not enough by itself; courts must establish particular amenability without relying on excluded social or economic considerations.
How often sentences depart from guidelines
Singh's case is an individual sentencing decision, but departures occur in a substantial share of Minnesota criminal vehicular homicide cases. According to the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission, 81 of 177 people sentenced for criminal vehicular homicide from 2020 through 2024 — 46% — received a mitigated dispositional departure.
According to the Pioneer Press, Mulrooney found that Singh had shown genuine remorse and was particularly amenable to probation. Ramsey County prosecutors sought the guideline sentence. Assistant County Attorney Tom Madison told the court he knew of no comparable dispositional departure for criminal vehicular homicide in a similar drunken-driving case since the 1980s.
The crash and Singh’s background
The Pioneer Press reported that Singh was driving a 1998 GMC Sierra shortly after 2:30 a.m. when he crossed the divider on Shepard Road near Randolph Avenue and struck Severson’s 2007 Chevrolet Impala. Severson died at the scene. A passenger in Severson’s car sustained injuries to her hands, face, neck and legs and reported back and leg pain. Singh’s blood-alcohol concentration, measured after the crash, was 0.23%; Minnesota’s legal limit is 0.08%.
Singh entered a Norgaard plea, meaning he pleaded guilty while saying he could not remember the collision but believed prosecutors had enough evidence to convict. He acknowledged crossing into oncoming traffic and said he had consumed several glasses of wine at home, according to the Pioneer Press.
Singh served 22 years in the Army and Air Force and retired in 2019. Court statements reported by the Pioneer Press said he sustained head injuries during deployments connected to Desert Storm and Desert Shield and during a 2009 Afghanistan deployment. The report also said he was diagnosed with major depressive disorder with alcohol use disorder, anxiety and insomnia, later completed inpatient and outpatient treatment through the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, attended more than 200 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and began training to become a licensed drug and alcohol counselor.
The family’s response
Singh suffered a stroke after the crash and spent nearly six months in and out of hospitals, the Pioneer Press reported. He apologized in court and said he was ashamed of taking away a son, brother, grandson, cousin and family friend. Severson’s family opposed the sentence during the hearing, while Mulrooney said the case still required a jail consequence.
