An appeal was filed with the State of Minnesota Court of Appeals by attorneys for Camille Lashay Dennis-Bond, convicted in January for the deaths of two former Prescott residents.
The Conviction …
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An appeal was filed with the State of Minnesota Court of Appeals by attorneys for Camille Lashay Dennis-Bond, convicted in January for the deaths of two former Prescott residents.
The Conviction or Order (Defense Appeal) was filed June 9 by Chanhassen attorney Travis M. Keil.
Dennis-Bond was convicted in December 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.
Dennis-Bond, 20, was convicted by a jury after seven hours of deliberation on Dec. 14, 2022 in Dakota County Court. Bond, now 19, 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 can be held in the juvenile system until he turns 21.
Dakota County Judge Tim Wermager sentenced Dennis-Bond to 15 years in prison.
Minnesota Department of Corrections records show she’s incarcerated at Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee.
According to the filing with the Minnesota Court of Appeals, issues to be raised on appeal include 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.”
Keil has requested oral arguments on the appeal.
An order sent to Wermager’s court reporter seeks transcripts from 11 appearances and hearings in Wermager’s courtroom between the pretrial conference in November 2022 through the March 24 sentencing. Total transcript pages were estimated at 1,123 at a cost of $4,800.
