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Ashley Renee Couch, 35, was sentenced on March 24, 2025, to 243 months (20 years and 3 months) for second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon after a fatal crash in Maplewood. Ramsey County District Judge Maria Mitchell imposed consecutive terms of 222 months for the murder count and 21 months for the assault count, with credit for time already spent in jail.

Couch was charged on August 16, 2024, with second-degree murder and second-degree assault and initially pleaded not guilty. Under a plea agreement on January 10, 2025, she pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court to second-degree unintentional murder for the death of Zakirrah Laniyah Cheyan Anderson and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for striking a second woman. She was not convicted of intentional murder.

Couch, of St. Paul, Minnesota, was 34 at the time of the crash. Her driver's license had been revoked in October 2019 over an insurance violation, and she was driving without a valid license. Anderson, 23, lived in Minneapolis.

On Wednesday, August 14, 2024, two feuding groups of women agreed to meet and fight. According to the charges, Anderson and two other women had been shot at around 7 p.m. on St. Paul's East Side. The groups then arranged a fight for 9 p.m. at Wakefield Park in Maplewood. Couch was linked to one group and the victims to the other.

At about 9:15 to 9:20 p.m., a Dodge Charger struck Anderson and a second woman near Larpenteur Avenue East in Maplewood and kept going. The second woman was thrown into the air and survived. Investigators said Anderson's injuries matched being dragged under a vehicle for an extended distance. She died shortly after arriving at Regions Hospital.

St. Paul police found the damaged Charger at about 5 a.m. on August 15, 2024, in an alley in St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood. Its rear license plate was missing, and trash cans had been placed in front of it. A concerned citizen called Maplewood police, named Couch as the driver, and said she had hidden the vehicle. Couch was arrested that afternoon.

In the recorded interview with detectives, Couch initially denied involvement. She said she had gone to the intersection to watch a fight, had her baby in the car and tried to leave when people began talking about weapons. After detectives showed her video of the crash, she denied intentionally hitting anyone and said, "I don't see me hitting no other girl."

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.