Published September 30, 2009 07:31 am - Seated solemnly in the front row of the Snyder County courtroom on Tuesday, Fran Hummel said the guilty plea by the drunken driver who killed her fiance in April wasn’t enough.
Driver pleads guilty to DUI-related death
By Tricia Pursell
The Daily Item
MIDDLEBURG — Seated solemnly in the front row of the Snyder County courtroom on Tuesday, Fran Hummel said the guilty plea by the drunken driver who killed her fiance in April wasn’t enough.
“It’s been 179 days, and he’s still out walking,” she said incredulously.
Her fiance, Steven A. Walter, 44, of Middleburg, was killed when Myron C. Myers, 33, of New Columbia, lost control of his pickup truck and veered head-on into the path of Walter’s 1997 Ford Escort at 10:50 p.m. April 1 on the Middleburg-New Berlin Highway in Franklin Township.
Myers told police he had spent 2 1/2 hours at a Snyder County tavern just before the crash.
He pleaded guilty on Tuesday afternoon to vehicular homicide while driving under the influence — a second-degree felony with a minimum term of three years in prison and a maximum of 10 years and a $25,000 fine. He also pleaded guilty to a DUI count that carries a maximum six-month probationary period and a $300 fine.
He faced 11 counts in all — including several DUI charges, careless and reckless driving and disregarding a traffic lane.
Sentencing will occur on either Nov. 18 or 24.
Myers and his attorney, Lonnie Hill, declined to comment following the plea hearing.
Walter’s brother and nephew were also there to witness the guilty plea, as was Diane Reigle, a friend of Hummel’s for 40 years. She and her fiance spent a lot of time with Hummel and Walter, she said.
“I was there when they got the phone call (about Walter’s death),” she said.
And she plans to be there for Hummel and the family through the grieving, as well.
“It’s tough,” Hummel said sadly.