Charges – Intoxicated Motorist Ran Over Man on Rural SE MN Road

Preston, MN (KROC-AM News) - A Fillmore County man was arraigned today on four felony charges connected to a deadly vehicle-pedestrian collision early Sunday.

50-year-old Brian Wayne Nelson of Harmony is accused of being intoxicated while he was operating a Can-Am all-terrain vehicle when he struck and killed a Cresco Iowa man early Sunday. The victim was identified as 23-year-old Cale Jackson.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Fillmore County Court, Nelson told a Fillmore County Sheriff's Sergeant that he had consumed several beers before he got behind the wheel of the ATV to meet some friends at a bar in the town of Granger near the Minnesota-Iowa border. The court document says he was "just driving down the road in his Can-Am when he saw something lying down, but he couldn't slow down quick enough."

The charges state that Nelson told the law officer he initially thought he might have run over some roadkill and continued to the bar, where he confided to the bartender that he "had just run someone over and that he felt in his heart he needed to go back." The criminal complaint says the bartender called 911 while Nelson and some friends went to the scene of the collision and found Jackson lying on the ground.

The court document indicates Jackson had been at the same bar in Granger, but had walked away after getting into an argument with a woman in the bar.

The criminal complaint says the Fillmore County Sheriff's Sergeant who spoke with Nelson at the scene detected a strong odor of alcohol coming from him and administered a preliminary breath test. It put his blood-alcohol-concentration at .16 nearly 90 minutes after the deadly collision occurred. The results of tests on a blood sample obtained several hours later are still pending.

Nelson is charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and two counts of criminal vehicular operation. He also faces gross misdemeanor and misdemeanor DWI charges, and a misdemeanor careless driving charge.

He was granted release from jail without bail but with conditions. Nelson has been ordered to return to court later this month.

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