In surprise testimony, brother says Derrick Thompson was driving in crash that killed 5 Somali women

The only defense presented by Derrick John Thompson in his murder trial is that his brother, Damarco Thompson, was driving the Cadillac Escalade that crashed into a Honda Civic and killed five young Somali women.

A surprise blow was dealt to that defense Wednesday when Hennepin County prosecutors subpoenaed Damarco Thompson and Judge Carolina Lamas compelled him to testify.

"Who was driving the Escalade when you saw it drive away?" Assistant Hennepin County Attorney James Hanneman asked Damarco.

"He was," Damarco said.

"You mean Derrick Thompson?" Hanneman asked.

"Yes," Damarco said.

As his brother walked to the stand, Derrick Thompson reclined in his chair for the first time during the trial and crossed his leg, then took a sip from a glass of water. He faces 15 felony charges, including five counts of third-degree murder.

"You don't want to be here today?" Hanneman asked Damarco.

"No," he replied.

After Damarco's testimony, the state rested its case. The defense called no witnesses and also rested. Closing arguments are set for Thursday.

Lamas signed an order compelling Damarco Thompson to testify after his attorney, Frederick Goetz, indicated Damarco would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to not testify. Damarco did not want to potentially implicate himself in crimes related to drugs and a gun found inside the car, for which his brother was convicted by a federal jury last year.

Hanneman informed Lamas that the state was not seeking information related to drugs or the gun. All they wanted him to address was whether he was driving the Escalade.

Lamas noted that typically the court would grant that immunity up front, but it instead was offered inside the courtroom moments before Damarco was to testify.

"It would be consistent with the public interest to testify in this trial," Lamas said, before signing the order and bringing the jury back into the courtroom.

Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Paige Starkey was asked when Damarco was subpoenaed to testify. She said she wasn't sure but that Damarco had been on the state's witness list. No court filings ahead of or during the trial listed Damarco as a witness who the state intended to call.

His testimony added a wrinkle to the proceedings.

Tyler Bliss, who had handled every aspect of Derrick Thompson's defense, did not cross-examine Damarco. That task instead went to another attorney, Joshua London.

Court records show that Bliss represented Damarco in a criminal case in 2020 after he was charged with felony drug possession and fleeing police after a car chase. He pleaded guilty to drug possession and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Bliss positioned his case on the idea that Damarco was driving the Escalade on the night of June 16, 2023, when it crashed into the Civic and killed Sabiriin Ali, Sahra Gesaade, Salma Abdikadir, Sagal Hersi and Siham Adam.

Wednesday morning started with Bliss' cross-examination of David Ligneel, a sergeant with the Minneapolis Police Department who led the investigation into the crash.

Bliss hammered Ligneel on the lack of investigation into Damarco. He showed surveillance footage from the Hertz rental car stand at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport which showed both Damarco and Derrick leaving the facility.

Damarco was in a blue hat and gray sweatshirt, driving the family's Dodge Challenger.

Derrick was driving the Escalade.

After the Escalade crashed, the blue hat and the keys to the Challenger were found inside it. Bodycam footage of state trooper Andres Guerra arriving on the scene showed a witness just feet from the Escalade saying a man in a gray sweatshirt had fled the car.

No DNA testing was done on that evidence, or on the passenger side of the car.

"Yes, Mr. Damarco Thompson's hat is in there. Yes, the keys to the Challenger are in there. But that does not show that Mr. Damarco Thompson was driving that vehicle," Ligneel testified. "If anything it shows he was in the passenger side of the vehicle."

On Tuesday, Marlijn Hoogendoorn, a lead DNA scientist with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's crime lab, testified that the inside driver door of the Escalade had the DNA profiles of Derrick and Damarco. The profile of Derrick was at least 100 billion times more likely to be in the DNA mixture than a random individual while Damarco's was 6,000 times more likely.

Still, Bliss highlighted that the lab could not exclude Damarco's DNA from being on the driver's side door. "Correct," Hoogendoorn said.

He also noted that the state did not attempt any DNA analysis of the passenger side of the car — where airbags were also deployed and a blue hat was found.

"We can't test items that aren't brought to us," Hoogendoorn said.

Damarco testified that after he and his brother left the airport, they drove the two cars to a park where Derrick got out of the Escalade and grabbed a few items from the Challenger.

Asked how his hat and car keys ended up in the Escalade, Damarco said he gave Derrick the hat because it looked good with his outfit. He said his brother had another set of spare keys.

After his brother left, Damarco said, he went to Woodbury to spend the evening with his daughter and her mother.