PORTAGE —A Randolph man involved in a previous fatal crash will spend four years in prison after authorities say he led a deputy on a high-speed chase in September.
Citing a "very, very bad decision," Judge Alan J. White sentenced Brian D. Hron, 24, to serve one year in prison followed by one year on extended supervision after he pleaded guilty Monday in Columbia County Circuit Court to a felony charge of eluding an officer as a vehicle operator.
The chase, however, has resulted in a total prison sentence of four years for Hron, who was sentenced in January to three years in prison after his extended supervision was revoked, as a result of the Columbia County charge, on a 2003 homicide conviction in Dane County.
Hron originally served two years in prison followed by three years of extended supervision after a Dane County jury found him guilty of felony homicide by negligent operation of a motor vehicle in a May 2002 crash.
Hron, 17 years old at the time, reportedly was speeding along London Road near Deerfield on May 30, 2002, when his car skidded and flipped, killing Jessica Mancheski, 16, of Cambridge, and injuring passengers Nicole Kauper, then 19, of Edgerton, and Melinda Hanson, then 17, of Fort Atkinson. Alcohol was not a factor in the crash.
Hron said tearfully at the hearing Monday that he could not believe his own actions in September, which risked the life he had created with family, a job, and church following his release from prison.
"I am truly sorrowful for what happened that morning," he said.
Hron received a head injury in the 2002 crash that left his memory impaired for two to three years, according to Hron's father, Mark Hron. The conviction still haunts Mark Hron, he said in court Monday.
The Sept. 15 Columbia County chase began at about 5:28 a.m. while Hron was returning to the rural Randolph home where he lives with his parents after taking his father to the Dane County Regional Airport.
Hron missed the turn onto Blanecae Road where he lives, then came to a stop 4.2 miles from where the chase began. He admitted to driving more than 100 mph and to seeing the officer trying to pull him over, revocation documents say.
Hron has had other eluding convictions since the May 2002 crash:
• On Dec. 27, 2002, Hron was speeding in Champaign County, Ill., when he was arrested going 73 mph in a 55-mph zone. That led to a bail jumping charge in Dane County, where Hron had signed a specific condition of bail that he obey all traffic laws.
• Hron served a year in jail after pleading no contest in Dane County in May 2003 to felony eluding an officer and felony bail jumping from a February 2003 incident in which he crashed his vehicle after he led Dane County deputies on a chase in that reached 122 mph on Highway 151 north of Sun Prairie.