Man sentenced to 16 years in prison in fatal OWI case
MEDFORD (WAOW) - A Sheldon man will spend 16 years in prison after being convicted of drunken driving and plowing into a group of deer hunters, killing one, a judge ordered in Taylor County court Friday.
Judge Ann Knox-Bauer said James Winchel, 43, had a “cavalier attitude” toward drunken driving and said he played Russian roulette with a loaded gun.
"He was significantly drunk and it was like a bowling ball being thrown down a bowling alley at a bunch of pins, and the folks who were in the way got hit," Knox-Bauer said.
Winchel will also spend 18 years on extended supervision. A jury convicted him of six felonies in February, including homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and fifth-offense operating while intoxicated. The judge dismissed three of the six counts Friday, after both lawyers agreed.
Winchel is charged in the November 29, 2013, crash that killed Juan Salinas, 50, of Roscoe, Ill., and injured another man on a rural road in western Taylor County.
Salinas' wife took the stand during Friday's sentencing and said she lost her soul mate. She told the judge Winchel is a “raging alcoholic” and that he should be “forever punished.”
Winchel also took the stand at sentencing and apologized to the Salinas family and said, “I want to take full responsibility for that day.”
Salinas and his hunting group were walking along the road after coming out of some woods when he and another man were hit by a car Winchel was driving at least 50 mph, according to a criminal complaint.
Investigators report the gun Salinas was carrying smashed through the windshield of the car and hit Winchel.
Winchel's blood-alcohol level at the time was 0.196 percent, the criminal complaint said. The legal limit to drive is 0.08 percent.
Winchel told investigators he had five or six beers in the two hours before the crash and he was probably intoxicated, the complaint said.