After woman fled from deputies and crashed, her baby was found screaming next to vehicle, charges say

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
·2 min read

Aug. 23—A 20-year-old reached speeds approaching 100 mph after she fled from law enforcement in Little Canada early Saturday, before hitting a retaining wall and rolling her vehicle, according to charges filed Monday.

Deputies immediately found the woman's 8-month-old daughter on the ground by the vehicle, where she was screaming and flailing her arms and legs. The baby had blood on her legs, but when she was taken to the hospital for evaluation her injuries appeared to be superficial, the criminal complaint said.

The Ramsey County attorney's office charged Angelica Marie Henry-Schmidt, of St. Cloud, with fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle and endangering a child in a situation that could cause harm or death.

On Saturday at 12:17 a.m., a Ramsey County sheriff's deputy on patrol drove by a gas station at Little Canada Road and Interstate 35E and noticed a sport-utility vehicle backed up to the building and car wash area. The building, which was closed, had several burglaries in the past year, the complaint said.

The deputy pulled into the lot and asked the woman, later identified as Henry-Schmidt, to stop as she drove by. She told him she was vacuuming out her vehicle and then sped west on Little Canada Road.

Henry-Schmidt fled south on I-35E to Minnesota Highway 36 at speeds approaching 100 mph, the complaint said. Deputies turned on their emergency lights and pursued the vehicle. They didn't know there was an infant inside until after the crash, according to a sheriff's office Saturday press release.

At Hamline Avenue, Henry-Schmidt exited southbound and drove in the northbound lanes at about 80 mph, the complaint said. The SUV bottomed out at Larpenteur Avenue, and Henry-Schmidt lost control of the vehicle and crashed near Hamline and Idaho avenues in Falcon Heights.

Henry-Schmidt tried to hide in her shorts a bag that contained a white substance of suspected narcotics, the complaint said. Law enforcement obtained a search warrant to draw and test Henry-Schmidt's blood, and the results are pending.

An attorney for Henry-Schmidt wasn't listed in the court record as of Monday afternoon.

Henry-Schmidt is on probation in Ramsey County in cases in which she received stays of imposition of sentences, including third-degree drug possession, fleeing, and ineligible person in possession of a firearm, according to the complaint. She received a stayed 5-year sentence on the gun case in December.

She had a Wisconsin Department of Corrections fugitive warrant for drugs when she was arrested Saturday, the sheriff's office said.