BATON ROUGE — A man accused of killing two people in a drunk-driving crash has a long list of dismissed traffic violations and was convicted of a crime of abuse, the WBRZ Investigative Unit uncovered Wednesday. 

The Baton Rouge Police Department said 29-year-old Devin Kleinpeter was driving 94 mph along South Foster Drive during the early morning on Nov. 2. Police said the roads were wet and his BMW went off of the street near Claycut Road and hit a tree. Two passengers, 27-year-old Tristen Hoover and 24-year-old Claire Zeller, were killed at the scene.

Two more passengers were seriously injured and taken to a hospital. Officers said at the time of the crash, he had cocaine in his system and a .121 B.A.C., which is above the legal driving limit of .08.

Kleinpeter turned himself in to the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on Monday. He was booked for two counts of vehicular homicide and first-degree vehicular negligent injuring, as well as one count each of reckless operation of a vehicle and operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

WBRZ's Investigative Unit looked into Kleinpeter's criminal history. According to court records, this was not Kleinpeter's first traffic violation. He had seven separate traffic citations in East Baton Rouge Parish from 2016 to 2023, with most of them being dismissed. Five of them were for speeding and four included driving on a suspended license. In all, Kleinpeter paid $205 in fines and court costs. 

In 2016, he was arrested for allegedly raping a woman who was drunk and sleeping. He bonded out after spending two days in jail. He pleaded guilty in 2019 in Judge Louis Daniel's court to a lesser charge of cruelty to the infirm, which kept him off the sex offender registry. He was sentenced to three years of probation. Within 18 months, his probation was satisfactorily terminated by Judge Tarvald Smith. 

During the court proceedings, Kleinpeter was arrested for misdemeanor theft. The case was dismissed by Judge Daniel before his 2019 sentencing.