Deadly Hit-and-Run Charge Dropped Against Owatonna Man

Owatonna, MN (KROC-AM News) - The criminal vehicular homicide charge brought against an Owatonna man accused of a deadly hit-and-run last fall has been dismissed. Forty-three-year-old Derek Paul Denelsbeck was arrested last October after the body of 31-year-old Taylor Dean Padilla-Ades was discovered along a Steele County road just south of Owatonna on the morning of October 30, 2024.

The criminal complaint indicated that parts from a pickup truck were found in the same area where the victim was located. The court document says one of the investigators recognized a piece of debris as being from a vehicle owned by Denelsbeck.

According to the charges, investigators went to Denelsbeck's residence and found his damaged pickup parked in an open garage. While waiting for a search warrant, investigators were notified that the Owatonna man had called law enforcement and stated, "Someone just called me and told me I hit something this morning apparently. What happened, I guess—because I thought I had hit a deer." The court document says Denelsbeck went on to question why anyone would be walking along the side of the road at five in the morning, adding that he didn’t see anything until he heard a bang.

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The criminal complaint says Denelsbeck indicated that he pulled over shortly after hearing the noise, inspected his truck, and then looked around for a deer or pieces from his pickup but didn’t see “anybody or anything.”

Court documents say witnesses reported seeing the victim before he was killed, walking very close to the lane of traffic. One witness stated that the man walked into the middle of the road “right up to” his car. It was also noted that it was dark, there were no streetlights in the area, and the victim was wearing dark clothing.

The judge who considered the case reviewed hundreds of photos from the crash site, the reconstruction investigation report, the victim’s autopsy, and numerous other pieces of evidence before concluding that Denelsbeck’s assertion—that he did not see the victim before or after the collision—was plausible. The judge’s ruling even states that a possible explanation is “that Mr. Padilla-Ades was not walking on the shoulder, but darted from the ditch into the traveling lane, affording Mr. Denelsbeck no time to see him or react to avoid contact.”

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