Charges: Wis. Woman Read Text Prior To Fatal Crash

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Wisconsin woman is now charged in a distracted driving crash that killed a young mother from St. Paul.

Destiny Xiong, 35, admitted she had been reading a text from her daughter as she was driving on Interstate 35W in New Brighton last May.

Xiong said she dropped her phone and was looking for it when she slammed into a car driven by Brea Miller, who later died from her injuries.

Miller's fiancé, Michael Bain, was a passenger in the car when it was hit. He suffered serious injuries, but has since recovered.

Both Bain and Miller's sister, Andrea, say their top priority now is her 3-year-old daughter, Izzy, who Andrea says was the joy of her sister's life.

"All she ever wanted to be was be a mom, so I'm really happy she had the opportunity even though it was just for a little while," Andrea Miller said.

She told us she hopes the case will make everyone think about texting and driving.

"You are affecting so many lives," Miller said. "I feel bad for this woman. She is a mom, too. Her family has to deal with her choices, too."

Bain agreed, saying he is not "taking any joy" in her being charged.

"This is a huge problem and I hope this helps get the word out," Bain said.

Xiong has been charged with two felony counts. Prosecutors will have to prove that she operated her car in a "grossly negligent" manor. And while that can be difficult to prove, Xiong's own admissions of texting, as well as her phone records, will be used against her.

"What the state has to prove here is that the person … did something, that is they killed somebody, which they did clearly," said University of Minnesota law professor David Schultz. "Then … just show that they were distracted, and distracted in this case would be a statutorily defined 'texting while driving.'"

One count Xiong is charged with has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The second, less-serious count carries a maximum three-year sentence.

Nationally, it is estimated that 20 percent of all car accidents involved distracted driving.