Scott Farmer
WAUPACA, WI (WSAU) — The drunk driver who killed four siblings in a wrong-way crash on US Highway 10 in Waupaca County will serve 37.5 years in a state prison for homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle.
Scott Farmer was sentenced on Friday after numerous impact statements, including letters from unidentified individuals. Records show Farmer’s wife and sister-in-law also submitted letters.
Sentencing began at 9 AM with statements from the victims’ family and a video. The court recessed at about noon and returned to session at 1:15 for further impact statements and analysis of the presentence investigation.
Farmer was also fined over $4,000 for the OWI charge.
The judge noted that while that investigation showed Farmer was considered to be at a low risk of re-offending, he still presented a risk to the public because of his history of alcoholism. He will also serve 20 years of extended supervision if he is released.
The sentence breaks down to nine years in prison for each count of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle. Those counts will be served consecutively, or one after the other, adding up to 36 years. Another 1.5 years was tacked on for the OWI charge.
Farmer will be eligible for release when he is about 85 years old. Should he live that long, he will spend another 21 years on extended supervision. This means he will be in the state prison system in one form or another until he is in his 100s.
He was given credit for 342 days already served.
Farmer was drunk when he drove his pickup the wrong way down a Waupaca County highway, leading to a head-on crash with a vehicle carrying four siblings. They were identified as Daniel, Fabian, Lilian, and Daniela Gonzalez. Three of them died at the scene, the fourth died at a hospital the next day.
RELATED: UPDATED: Four Dead in Waupaca County Crash, Driver Charged With Homicide
The siblings were the children and step-children of Pastor Kurt Schilling and his wife, Paulina Gonzalez-Medina, who serve Emmaus Lutheran Church in Waupaca. A GoFundMe account for the family has raised more than $100,000 from more than 1,500 donors.
On all felony counts combined, Farmer faced up to 160 years in prison. Following the hearing, he was immediately turned over to the state to begin his sentence.
Comments