AUBURN -- A local man has admitted that he was drunk when he crashed a car he was driving and his passenger was killed last fall.
In Cayuga County Court Tuesday morning, 22-year-old Stefan P. Lepak of Ross Street in Auburn pleaded guilty to felony second degree vehicular manslaughter, misdemeanor driving while intoxicated (DWI), and third degree unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Lepak was indicted last month in connection with a crash with a pickup truck near Port Byron on November 30, 2009 in which 23-year-old Nicholas Nielens was ejected from a vehicle Lepak was driving and killed.
The accident happened on Lepak’s birthday. He was found to have a blood alcohol content level of .17%, more than twice the state’s legal limit for DWI.
In the courtroom, Judge Mark Fandrich told Lepak that he will be sentenced to one to three years in prison for the vehicular manslaughter charge, and one year each to the DWI and unauthorized use charges. Those sentences will run concurrently. Lepak will also have to pay a fine and court fees, pay restitution to the owner of the car he was driving, and repay the owner of the truck he crashed into. He will also have his driver’s license revoked.
Lepak is currently out of jail on $15,000 bail until his formal sentencing on June 1. Had the case gone to trial, he could have faced a maximum sentence of two and a third to seven years in prison.
