Anthony John Cuchetti struck and critically injured a 40-year-old man who was on a downtown St. Paul freeway and didn’t stop, telling an investigator the next day he thought he had hit an animal.

On Friday, Ramsey County District Judge Joy Bartscher followed a plea agreement and sentenced the 50-year-old musician from Red Wing to two years of unsupervised probation after he pleaded guilty to felony failing to stop at a traffic collision resulting in injury in connection with the May 2023 crash.

The father and sister of the victim told the court at sentencing they’re not buying Cuchetti’s claim of ignorance.

“I find it extremely difficult to believe that anyone would think that wildlife populates a downtown St. Paul interstate,” Nicole Welage told the court. “And I actually find it disrespectful to my brother to compare him to a dog or a deer.”

Her brother, Jeffrey Allen Welage Jr., survived the collision, which happened on Interstate 94 near Jackson Street just before 11 p.m. May 18, 2023. But his injuries included a traumatic brain injury, compound fractures to both his legs and injuries to his arms, shoulder, pelvis and face.

“Mr. Cuchetti left my son to die,” his father, Jeff Welage Sr., of Mounds View, said at sentencing. “If not for the Good Samaritans, he would have died right there.”

In a tragic turn of events, Welege Jr. was found dead June 1 in a bathtub at his girlfriend’s downtown St. Paul apartment, where he’d been staying of late. His sister said he drowned and had methamphetamine in his system.

Welege’s father and sister told the judge they do not agree with Cuchetti’s plea deal, which included a stay of adjudication, meaning if he successfully completes probation the charge will be dismissed and he won’t have the conviction on his criminal record.

“I believe in my heart and soul that Mr. Cuchetti was well aware he hit a man wearing a bright white T-shirt,” Nicole Welage said.

Cuchetti’s attorney, Nicole Kettwick, told the court that her client was driving lawfully down the interstate “where, tragically, a pedestrian should not have been. Just as law enforcement articulated, there was no way for Mr. Cuchetti to know, or even suspect, that he had struck a human being.”

Saw the news

According to the June 5 criminal complaint, the State Patrol responded to a report of a man lying face down on the right shoulder of eastbound Interstate 94 just east of Jackson Street. Welage was unconscious and taken to Regions Hospital.

Around 10 a.m. the next day, Cuchetti called the State Patrol. He told an investigator he saw a news story about the incident that morning and believed he was the motorist who struck Welage.

Cuchetti said he had performed as a musician at a private party for a company in Minneapolis the night before. He said he had consumed one to two beers during the night. A blood draw for toxicology testing was not obtained from Cuchetti, according to the State Patrol.

While driving home on eastbound I-94 in the area of downtown St. Paul, Cuchetti “saw something come out,” which he thought was an animal, he told the investigator.

Cuchetti said that because of traffic he was unable to swerve to avoid a collision, which “jolted the car,” the complaint says. He said he had hit a deer before and that it felt the same, adding: “It didn’t cross my mind that it could have been a person because I was on the highway, and I was like, ‘What would someone be walking across the highway for?’ “

Cuchetti said he continued on I-94 to southbound U.S. 61, where he felt safe to pull over. He said he saw damage to the right headlight of his Honda Pilot, but that the SUV was otherwise drivable, so he decided to contact his insurance company in the morning.

The investigator contacted a manager at the company where Cuchetti had performed the night of the crash. He said that he doubted that Cuchetti had much to drink there, the complaint says.

A certified crash reconstructionist determined the collision and injuries to Welage could “primarily be attributed to (Welage), who was walking or standing in the lane of a controlled-access highway in a location and under conditions of limited visibility,” the criminal complaint says.

Cuchetti did not return to investigate what he hit as required by law and it “is unknown exactly how long (Welage) was on the roadway, after being struck, before his condition was reported and he began receiving medical treatment,” the complaint says.

‘Life altered’

Cuchetti declined to address the court on Friday, choosing to let his attorney speak on his behalf.

“From the very beginning, this case has been defined by tragedy,” Kettwick said. “A life was ultimately lost, and a family is grieving. Mr. Cuchetti recognizes that pain, and while nothing he can say will change the profound loss they’ve suffered, he carries the weight of this situation with deep remorse.”

At the time of the crash, Welage had been using methamphetamine and staying at the Union Gospel Mission and Dorothy Day homeless shelters in downtown St. Paul, his father told the Pioneer Press in June. He underwent more than 10 surgeries and remained in the hospital, with a tracheostomy tube, for several weeks. He then spent two months recovering at his father’s home before moving to a group home in Anoka.

“My brother was profoundly impacted by this hit-and-run until he died last June,” his sister told the court. “Jeff’s life was altered in every aspect due to the accident. His extensive injuries handicapped him and robbed him of his quality of life. He was in unimaginable pain and agony every day after the accident.”