COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – A Fort Wayne man will be spending up to five years in the Michigan Department of Corrections following a crash in April of 2021 at the intersection of Fremont and Copeland Roads that badly injured another man from Indiana.
34-year-old Evan Lindsey Kerr was given a 39 month to five year sentence on Monday in Branch County Circuit Court after he entered a no contest plea on February 6 to a charge of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury as part of a plea bargain agreement.
The sentence was the maximum the court could have ordered under the laws of the State of Michigan.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dismissed a second count of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury as well as charges of reckless driving causing serious impairment of bodily functions and moving violation causing serious impairment of bodily functions.
Kerr was given credit for 30 days served and was ordered to pay over $9,100 in restitution. The Branch County Sheriff’s Department said at the time of the crash that a pickup truck driven by Kerr failed to stop for a stop sign and collided with a Chevrolet Tahoe driven by 69-year-old James Wagenknecht of Hamilton, Indiana.
Wagenknecht suffered numerous fractures in the crash.
Kerr was scheduled to be sentenced on April 17 but failed to appear for his hearing. A previous plea bargain agreement was voided and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Kerr’s $10,000 bond was later rescinded.
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