Drunk Driver Who Killed 16-Year-Old Gets 9 Years
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A Coon Rapids man who killed a 16-year-old Brooklyn Center boy while driving drunk, with a blood-alcohol level more than three times the legal limit, will spend most of the next decade behind bars.
Michael Vanwagner, 25, was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison.
He was driving about 60 mph when he slammed into Jason McCarthy's vehicle on July 22 as McCarthy waited at a red light, according the the criminal complaint. Vanwanger's blood-alcohol content after the crash was 0.293 percent and he was driving without a license. The legal limit is 0.08.
"Words cannot describe how sorry I am for what I have done," he said during the sentencing. "I wish it was me who had died."
McCarthy's mother, Tara, cried through most of the court hearing, according to a press release from the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. She told the judge that McCarthy was a boy who brought joy into the world.
"I will always be his mom, but I don't get to mother him anymore," she told the judge, according to the release. "I don't get to watch him grow. I want [Vanwagner] to change places with my sweet Jason. But I can't have that. Certainly my life is over, but I have to keep going for my daughter and my husband."
Hennepin County District Court Judge Jay Quam said he did not give Vanwanger the maximum sentence of ten years because he spared the family the pain of a trial by pleading guilty.
Vanwanger's defense attorneys talked about his bipolar mental illness and his history of chemical dependency.
