A 23-year-old woman was charged Thursday with being under the influence of drugs when she crashed her car into a tree in Orono and killed a passenger last year.

Brienna M. Salvatori was charged in Hennepin County District Court with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the wreck on Aug. 31 that killed Michael Evjen, 26, of Corcoran. Salvatori was charged by summons. Messages were left with her seeking her response to the allegations.

A blood test showed that Salvatori had morphine and the designer drug flualprazolam in her system at the time of the crash, according to the charges.

She told police she had used heroin about 14 hours earlier, the charges continued.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police located Salvatori's car in a ditch near the intersection of Shoreline Drive and Heritage Lane along Lake Minnetonka's Smith Bay.

Evjen was taken by ambulance to North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale and died there two days later.

Salvatori told officers that she crashed into a tree and ended up in a ditch after "a squirrel or something" ran into the road, the complaint quoted her as saying.

An investigation found no evidence that Salvatori braked in the moments before the crash.

A vehicle heading the other way stopped, and a passenger got out. The woman said Salvatori told her, "I'm going to get in trouble if I kill him."

Officers saw in Salvatori's possession multiple hypodermic needles, a dose of Narcan, which is used to stop the effects of an opioid overdose, and two spoons with THC and heroin present.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482