A woman from Bemidji who said she had at least 18 drinks in one night and then killed a woman on a motorcycle in a two-vehicle collision the next day has pleaded guilty and is now serving a nearly six-year sentence.
Victoria B. Whitefeather, 23, pleaded guilty in Hubbard County District Court to criminal vehicular homicide in the death of Tracy Childs, 51, of Proctor, Minn., who was sitting behind her husband on a motorcycle at the time of the crash on Aug. 25 in the northern part of the county.
Whitefeather was given a sentence of five years and 10 months, and she will be required to serve more than three years of that time in prison and the balance on supervised release.
Childs' husband, 47-year-old Robert Childs, survived severe injuries from the late-morning crash.
Prosecutors and police say that Whitefeather told witnesses at the scene that she had 10 or more shots of hard liquor and at least eight mixed drinks the night before.
She awakened the next morning and began driving south on County Road 36 but fell asleep and ran into the northbound motorcycle.
A preliminary breath test the afternoon after her night of heavy drinking measured her blood alcohol content at 0.08 percent, the legal minimum for drunken driving in Minnesota.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
