8 years in prison for fatal drunken driving crash
Published 10:36 am Wednesday, October 7, 2015
MINNEAPOLIS — A man accused of driving drunk at a high rate of speed and causing a crash that killed two people in Minneapolis is sentenced to eight years in prison.
Fifty-six-year-old Philip Bertelsen was convicted of two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in the 2013 deaths of 20-year-old Melvin Jones and 21-year-old Brandy Banks-Sutta.
Prosecutors say Bertelsen was twice the legal limit of intoxication and driving at 107 mph when he hit the victims’ car.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports Bertelsen apologized during his sentencing hearing Tuesday and said he had been sober for 30 years before slipping back into excessive drinking.