Oral arguments were heard Thursday, Feb. 8 in the appeal of the sentence of a woman convicted of vehicular homicide in the 2021 deaths of two former Prescott High School graduates.
A three judge Minnesota Appeals Court panel presided over Thursday’s session at the St. Paul Judicial Center, as attorney Travis Keil seeks to have the conviction and sentence against Camille Lashay Dennis-Bond overturned.
Dennis-Bond, 24, remains incarcerated at Minnesota Corrections Facility-Shakopee after convicted in December 2022 of two counts of third-degree murder, two counts of criminal vehicular homicide, one count of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm and one count of careless driving.
Dennis-Bond and her brother Leon Bond were drag racing on County Road 42 in Burnsville on April 4, 2021, when Leon Bond’s vehicle struck a car driven by Dalton Ford, 22 of Burnsville. Ford and his passenger, Tayler Garza, 22, of Woodbury, were killed in the accident. The two were 2017 graduates of Prescott High School.
The vehicles driven by Dennis-Bond and her brother were reportedly racing at speeds in excess of 100 mph.
Keil filed the appeal last June.
Dennis-Bond, 20, was convicted by a jury after seven hours of deliberation on Dec. 14, 2022 in Dakota County Court. Bond, now 20, was 80 days short of his 18th birthday at the time of the accident and was tried as a juvenile. He pled guilty to similar charges as his sister in January after the jury ruled against her. He has since been released from the juvenile correctional facility in Red Wing and remains on probation.
Dakota County Judge Tim Wermager sentenced Dennis-Bond to 15 years in prison. According to the Minnesota Department of Corrections, her anticipated release date is Dec. 6, 2032.
According to the filing with the Minnesota Court of Appeals, issues to be raised on appeal on whether the Dakota County Court “abused its discretion when it denied appellant’s Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Probable Cause.” It also states, “There was insufficient evidence for the jury to find appellant guilty of the charged offenses.”
Dennis-Bond’s attorney during the trial, Bobby Jo Champion, had filed a Motion for Dispositional/Durational Departure asking the judge for a sentence of a prison duration and not a fixed sentence based on the crime convicted of. Wermager denied that motion and the appeal says the court “abused its discretion by not granting appellant’s motion.”
A decision from the Court of Appeals is expected in 30-90 days.