GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A state appeals court upheld Terral Wallace’s conviction and 16-year prison sentence in a fatal drunken driving crash on Interstate 41, rejecting his claim he wasn’t informed of a five-year minimum prison term in the case.
Wallace pleaded no contest to homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle, and two counts of injury by intoxicated use of a vehicle. The crash happened on I-41 near Scheuring Road on April 26, 2020. After his arrest, he told police everyone in the car had been drinking but he was the most sober.
Although several forms indicated the case had a sentencing range of five to 25 years, the plea questionnaire and waiver of rights form did not mention the five-year minimum, and the judge did not address it at sentencing.
However, in the 20-page ruling issued Tuesday, the appeals court noted the plea deal called for recommendation of ten years, and Wallace himself hoped for an eight-year sentence.
“As applied to this case, the circuit court’s failure to inform Wallace of the presumptive five-year minimum term of initial confinement on Count 1 at the plea hearing amounts to an insubstantial defect, not a manifest injustice,” the decision states. “Although there is no record of the parties agreeing to a joint sentencing recommendation prior to sentencing, the record overwhelmingly demonstrates that the defense did not believe there was a realistic possibility that Wallace would receive less than five years of initial confinement on Count 1.”
The appeals court said the trial court properly denied Wallace’s request to withdraw his plea with a procedural hearing.
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