A Wisconsin motorist was sentenced Tuesday for being drunk when he killed three Twin Cities college students in a crash north of Madison last year.
Bradley R. Erickson, 32, of Madison, who pleaded no contest to three counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle, was sentenced in Dane County Court to 13 years in prison. He also will be on extended supervision for 15 years.
Killed were Marcus Johnson, 19, of Milwaukee; Elysia Rapp, 20, of Racine, Wis., and Wilfredo Ugarte, 23, of Puerto Rico. Johnson and Ugarte were University of Minnesota students.
Rapp, Johnson's girlfriend, attended Century College in White Bear Lake.
Prosecutors say that shortly after 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2010, the victims' car was pulled over on Interstate 39/90/94 in Burke with a flat tire, when a speeding Erickson crashed his car into theirs. A fourth person among the group of five was injured.
Erickson registered a blood-alcohol level 0.158 percent shortly after the crash, nearly twice the legal limit. Friends described the Iraq war veteran as using alcohol to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.
One passenger, Carlos Rios, told investigators the group's car was fully in the emergency lane near the median, when he saw Erickson driving "very fast" toward them. He said he shouted to the others before jumping over the median barrier.
Erickson slammed into the car, which was headed to Milwaukee from the Twin Cities.
