MADISON, Wis. — The man who pleaded guilty to three counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle tied to a crash that killed three teenagers last year was sentenced Wednesday evening to 18 years in prison.
Eric Mehring, 31, of Verona, was also sentenced to 12 years of extended supervision. Judge Ellen Berz also ordered that he be required to speak to a class, church group or civic group on the anniversary of the crash each year he’s on extended supervision. He had faced up to 75 years in prison.
Mehring pleaded guilty in late July to three charges stemming from the Oct. 2, 2021, crash, which killed Simon Bilessi, Jack Miller and Evan Kratochwill. As part of a plea deal, the state dropped five other charges, including three counts of second-degree reckless homicide and two counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety.
In court Wednesday, Mehring apologized for his actions, saying he “had been in a state of denial” about his relationship with alcohol.
“I am sorry is a woefully underpowered statement for how I feel about my choices and my actions that brought us here today,” he said.
Court records alleged Mehring was driving home from a bar with roughly three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system when he rear-ended the teens’ vehicle on Mineral Point Road. The crash, which happened around 10:15 p.m., sent the teens’ vehicle into a field where it caught fire.
Bilessi, Miller and Kratochwill died at the scene. Miller and Kratochwill were seniors at Middleton High School, while Bilessi was a senior at Madison West High School. Mehring was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries from the crash.
A criminal complaint filed last October said Mehring told a deputy he thought he was going about 75 mph. During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, though, Berz said Mehring was actually driving much faster.
“You sped at a rate reserved for racetracks,” she said. “One-hundred-sixty mph in a 45 mph zone. (It) wouldn’t have even mattered if it was a 75 mph zone; 160 mph on a city road is unfathomably dangerous.”
Classmates of all three teens memorialized them during fall homecoming celebrations and remembered them as accomplished student-athletes and “amazing people.”
The outpouring of support led the teens’ families to take out a full-page ad in the Wisconsin State Journal thanking “friends and supporters from all over the country and the world.”
Miller’s family released a statement via the Dane County Sheriff’s Office following the sentencing. It reads:
“Today is another extremely painful day for three families whose sons were killed by Eric Mehring’s deliberate and reckless actions, a tragedy that was preventable. We are grateful to our family, friends, and the Middleton community who shared many victim impact statements with the Court and have supported us over the past year.
“On October 2, 2021, Eric Mehring intentionally consumed enough alcohol to have a BAC three times the legal limit. He then chose to drive his car at 160 miles per hour, crashing into our son Jack’s car and instantly killing Jack, Evan, and Simon. We are disappointed that the maximum sentence was not given to someone who had so many opportunities to have prevented this tragedy and yet chose otherwise. While today’s sentencing will never bring back these three young men, they deserved justice to be served.
“Our lives will never be the same without our Jack, and he will forever be missed.”
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