GREEN BAY, Wis. – A motorist accused of hitting two pedestrians while driving drunk and making it home with one of them lodged in his windshield was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison.
Steven Warrichaiet, 40, of Green Bay, pleaded no contest in December to charges of homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle, hit and run resulting in death, injury by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle and hit and run causing great bodily harm.
Authorities said he struck Tyrone Ware, 50, and Joann Carroll-Hildahl, 42, on the night of July 8 and then continued more than a mile to his home with Ware stuck in the windshield.
The criminal complaint said Warrichaiet parked in the garage, called his sister and fell asleep on the couch, then awoke six hours later, discovered Ware's body and called 911.
Carroll-Hildahl was left lying on the pavement after the accident. She is paralyzed and in a nursing home, said Henry Williams, Ware's half brother.
Authorities have said Warrichaiet's blood alcohol level was 0.18 about six hours after the crash, or more than twice Wisconsin's legal limit for driving. He had been drinking heavily at a friend's home before trying to drive home.
A letter of apology that Warrichaiet wrote was read by his lawyer at the sentencing hearing.
"I can't even begin to imagine the pain and sorrow that I put your families through ... and that it's going to last for the rest of your lives," Warrichaiet wrote.
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