WINONA, Minn. — The driver who struck and killed an elderly woman on her way to church in Winona will spend a weekend in jail for the next ten years to remember her death.
Eighty-five-year-old Ruth Brendel was hit on Feb. 19, 2012 while walking to St. Martin's Lutheran Church.
Police said if Robert Tofstad had cleared his car windows of frost, he likely would have seen Brendel. Prosecutors say a breath test also showed Tofstad, who was 19 at the time, was legally intoxicated. He told investigators that he had been drinking the night before the accident.
The Winona Daily News (http://bit.ly/16cFMEd ) says Tofstad pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide. In addition to spending the weekends in jail to commemorate the date of Brendel's death, Tofstad will initially spend 60 days in jail.
