A Minnesota woman who allegedly urged her twin sister to take responsibility for a deadly SUV crash into an Amish buggy in 2023 was sentenced this week to four years in state prison.
Minnesota District Court Judge Jeremy Clinefelter sentenced the admitted driver, Samantha Peterson, on Thursday and also ordered her to pay nearly $40,000 in restitution, according to his sentencing memo for the case.
Peterson pleaded guilty in July to criminal vehicular homicide under the influence and criminal vehicular operation under the influence, NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis reported. Clinefelter ordered the sentences — four years and two years, respectively — to be served concurrently.
Authorities said Peterson was driving an SUV while high on methamphetamine after work on Sept. 25, 2023, when she rear-ended a horse-drawn buggy near Spring Valley, a small city about 114 miles south of Minneapolis.
Two sisters in the buggy, ages 7 and 11, ultimately died, while two other siblings survived with injuries, authorities said.
Authorities alleged that Samantha Peterson summoned her identical twin sister, Sarah, to the crash site, and that the sisters conspired to have Sarah Peterson take responsibility before they could determine exactly who was behind the wheel.
After considering evidence from search warrants, location data from Samantha Peterson’s cellphone and a phone call from her employer, deputies concluded she was driving and pushed for conviction, Fillmore County Sheriff John DeGeorge said at a news conference in early 2024.
“We started to determine that in fact Samantha was the sister that was coming from Rochester driving southbound at the time of the crash, not Sarah,” DeGeorge said.
The sheriff said the road where the crash took place, Fillmore County Road 1, is shared by buggies and has signs warning drivers of the slow traffic, so drivers must be extra careful.
“There’s also an Amish community that uses that road in buggies,” DeGeorge said. “That takes a whole ’nother level of responsibility.”
Ahead of sentencing on Thursday, Samantha Peterson directed words to the family of the deceased, according to KARE.
“I wish with everything in me that I could go back and change what happened,” she said tearfully, according to the station. “But, I know I cannot.”
She added, “My addiction took a lot from me, but it took the world from you.”
Peterson’s criminal defense lawyer, Carson J. Heefner, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News. After the sentencing, KARE reported that he said, “I guess in the grand of scheme of things, it was a fair sentence.”
Sarah Peterson was charged two days prior to her sister in early 2024 and has already served her sentence for contributing to criminal vehicular operation, according to KARE.
