MADISON (WKOW) — A Madison man who was convicted in the crash that killed three high school students was sentenced Wednesday.
Eric Mehring, 31, pleaded guilty in July to three counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle. As a result of the plea, three counts of second-degree reckless homicide and two counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety were dropped.
On Wednesday, Judge Ellen Berz sentenced Mehring to 30 years. He was given six years of initial confinement followed by four years of extended supervision on each charge.
Police say Mehring was intoxicated and speeding when he rear-ended a car on Mineral Point Road in October of 2021. Inside the rear-ended car were three teenagers from two area school districts — Simon Bilessi, Evan Kratochwill and Jack Miller. All three died as a result of the crash.
During Wednesday's sentencing, family members of the boys shared emotional pleas to the court, asking that Mehring receive the maximum sentence.
Simon Bilessi's aunt, Aline Ndoyi, was the first person to speak. "No parent should have to go through this. No parent ever. And I said, what did I do to my child? Did I bring him to Wisconsin to die?" she said.
Lori Reesor, Jack Miller's mother, spoke about how Jack had already beaten cancer less than two years before this crash.
"We had no idea on the day that he was declared cancer free that we would lose Jack before his time, but not to leukemia -- to the reckless, senseless decisions that Eric Mehring made 17 months later," Reesor said. "There is no part of our lives that this tragedy has not impacted."
Mehring, too, addressed the court prior to sentencing.
"My choices and my actions are entirely my own responsibility," he said. "For some reason I was spared that night. I've prayed countless times that the three young men would have been spared instead of myself."
27 News also obtained a copy of a journal entry Mehring wrote days after the fatal crash that said, in part, "I am scared. I don't want to go to jail, but I know I am going to, and I know I need to. I made an abhorrent mistake, and now I need to pay for it."
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