COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – A Camden man entered no contest pleas Monday in Branch County Circuit Court to charges of OWI causing death and possession of methamphetamine in connection with a fatal Ovid Township accident last October.
32-year-old Michael Daniel Penza is scheduled to be sentenced July 10, 2017. The charge of OWI causing death has a maximum prison sentence of 15 years while the meth charge carries a ten year maximum sentence.
In exchange for the no contest pleas, charges of second degree homicide and possession of marijuana, second offense, will be dismissed by prosecutors.
Penza closed his eyes and shook his head as Judge Bill O’Grady read into the record the details of the October 28, 2016 accident on Centennial Road near Lockwood Road which took the life of 54-year-old Brenda Hutchison of Coldwater. According to the Michigan State Police report, Penza was driving erratically all over the road at a high rate of speed before the head-on crash.
Hutchison was pronounced dead at the scene. Penza and his daughter were both injured. He was airlifted to Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo, while the girl was taken to the Community Health Center of Branch County for treatment.
