Steven Frane Bailey will be sentenced Monday for driving drunk into the patio of the Park Tavern last September, killing two people and injuring 12 others.
According to court documents, Bailey, 57, drove from the parking lot into the patio of the St. Louis Park restaurant, hitting several tables filled with people before his car hit a boulder on the other side of the patio.
He killed Kristina Folkerts, who worked at the Tavern, and Gabe Harvey, a health care specialist at Methodist Hospital.
Bailey had a blood alcohol concentration nearly four times the legal limit at the time of the crash, according to the criminal complaint.
In May, Bailey pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree murder and three counts of criminal vehicular operation. Under the terms of the plea deal, he’ll face a sentence of 25 to 30 years. He will also have to pay restitution to victims.
“Mr. Bailey’s choices that day scarred many lives and affected an entire community,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement following the plea deal. “Mr. Bailey is being held accountable and will be in prison for a long time to ensure that he cannot hurt anyone else. This was an entirely avoidable tragedy.”
The incident raised many questions after it became clear that Bailey had five previous DWIs.
He’d had an interlock device on his vehicle after a 2014 DWI. An interlock is a blood-alcohol testing device that won’t allow a car to start if alcohol is detected on a driver’s breath.
During the 2025 session, lawmakers introduced a bill to keep interlock devices in vehicles of people with DWIs for longer, and increase penalties for those same drivers. The Legislature passed that law, which goes into effect later this week.
Bailey is expected to be sentenced at 1 p.m. in Hennepin County District Court.
