|
||||||||||||
|
|
Wisconsin man tries to blame DWI crash on his dead mother
A Wisconsin man was sentenced to five years in prison for a crash that killed his mother. Not only did Matthew E. Petersen, 26, of Rice Lake, Wis., cause the crash, at the time, he tried to cover it up by moving his mother's body to the driver's seat. "I want to start by saying I'm sorry for what I've done," Petersen said during his sentencing hearing Tuesday afternoon. Petersen was driving with his mom, Marcia Petersen, 52, down a rural Barron County road last October when their car went off the road and flipped. Deputies arrived to find the mother in the driver's seat. She had already died. After examining the bruises left by her seatbelt, investigators discovered she was not the driver. "After the crash, the defendant did move his mother's body into the driver's seat and tried to make it look like his mother was the driver," said Barron County District Attorney Angela Holmstrom. Matthew Petersen admitted to the crime before his first court appearance last year. His blood-alcohol level was 0.175 following the crash, authorities said. But he drove that night because he thought his mom was in worse shape. "I honestly wish I would've died," Petersen said Tuesday. "This is something I've got to live with for the rest of my life." Relatives begged the judge for mercy during Tuesday's sentencing hearing. "No one would disagree with me when I say mom is looking down and wishing Matt wasn't suffering the way he is," one of Matt's sisters told the judge. "She wouldn't want him punished and in more pain than he's already going through." Even the prosecutor asked for probation instead of prison time. "I doubt there's anything the court can do to this defendant that he hasn't done to himself," Holmstrom said. But Judge James Babler wasn't swayed. He said a five-year prison sentence was necessary to protect the public. "The only right choice was not to get in any car at all," Babler said. "You killed your mother, but it could've been somebody else, too." In most court cases, there are clear-cut winners and losers. But no one inside the courtroom was celebrating Tuesday's verdict. A mother is gone. And her son must now pay for the death. "It was a very sad case," Holmstrom said. "I'm glad that it's over." The judge hopes Petersen gets the alcohol treatment he needs while serving his sentence. According to the criminal complaint, Petersen's drivers license was revoked at the time of the crash because of a previous drunk-driving conviction.
|
 MORE HEADLINES |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
