WI, Drunken driver consumed 23 beers before crashing car, killing four. He gets 66 years
Mark Fenster
Picture of Rogelio Promotor and the victims at:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/oct03/178166.asp
Mr. Promotor consumed 23 (!) beers in seven hours before getting
behind the wheel of a car. Mr. Promotor was then involved in an
automobile accident which resulted in the deaths of three people. On
Fridyay, Mr. Promotor was sentenced to 66 years in jail for his
actions.
Fenster
**********************************************************************
Drunken driver gets 66 years
West Allis man killed his passenger, 3 pilots in crash
By JESSICA MCBRIDE
jmcb...@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Oct. 17, 2003
Like the families of those who died with her son, Jean Popp's life is
now divided into the before and after.
There are the memories of Mike Popp, 29, before a drunken teenager
sped through a red light and killed Popp and his fellow airline pilots
Troy Vanderhei, 30, and Travis Cates, 31.
"His first word, his first step, his first skinned knee, his
introductory flight, his first airline job," she remembered Friday.
Then, she said, there is the after.
Mike Popp's life "is like the contrail left in the sky after a jet has
passed, a sign of what was there," Popp said. "The flight plan has
been canceled . . . the engines shut down. Thank you, Captain Popp,
the flight was smooth - but, oh, so short."
She was speaking at the sentencing of Rogelio Promotor, who slammed
into a car carrying five people at S. Howell and Layton avenues the
night of April 8. Promotor's 14-year-old passenger, Antonio Mazaba,
also died in the crash.
Popp, of Oak Creek, Cates, of Texas, and Shaun Forester, who was
injured in the crash, all were pilots for Skyway Airlines, a regional
carrier that operates as Midwest Connect. Vanderhei, of Mukwonago, had
a pilot's license and worked as an aircraft mechanic for Atlantic
Coast Airlines in Chicago.
After emotional statements from other victims' families and the two
crash survivors from the pilots' car, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge
Michael Brennan sentenced Promotor, 19, of West Allis, to consecutive
prison terms totaling 66 years.
Promotor's family members broke into wracking sobs upon hearing the
sentence, but the victims' families said it gave them some measure of
justice.
Defense attorney Richard J. Steinberg described how Promotor grew up
on an impoverished farm in Mexico, suffering abuse at the hands of an
alcoholic, violent father. After moving to Milwaukee, he worked as a
busboy and dishwasher and assumed the patriarchal role to his younger
brother.
Speaking in Spanish through an interpreter, Promotor apologized and
said, "I leave it in God's hands."
Steinberg called him the "poster boy" for the dangers of drunken
driving.
But Brennan cited the overwhelming loss caused by Promotor's actions.
"This is the most irresponsible, reckless criminal combination of
drinking and driving I have ever seen," Brennan said.
Promotor had consumed 23 beers in seven hours before the crash and was
witnessed stumbling on his way to get in his car, Brennan and the
prosecutor, Karen Loebel, said. He then drove a Ford Probe south on
Howell Ave. up to 86 mph before running through a red light at Layton
Ave. and striking a Toyota Corolla carrying the four pilots and Laura
Lewis, an airline worker married to a pilot who was not in the car.
Lewis was injured.
Promotor never had a driver's license and had been cited several times
for driving without a license and underage drinking.
Lewis told the judge she stops every week at a memorial near the crash
site, picking up trash and "searching for some reason why I was
allowed to live when my friends had to die. It doesn't end for us."
"My son, Troy, will never fly again," said Donna Vanderhei. "I'm sick
every day of my life."
Family members recalled how the Waukesha North High School graduate so
loved the Green Bay Packers he had vowed to someday name his first
child Brett.
Raymond Cates said his son left behind two children and a fiancee.
"His 2-year-old daughter will never have a daddy," Cates said. "She
cried a few days ago. She doesn't want to see any more pictures."
No one spoke about Mazaba, Promotor's passenger who died.
George Velguth, a uniformed Skyway representative, told the court the
airline was like a family, and those lost were its sons.
Referring to the large number of uniformed airline employees in the
packed courtroom, Velguth said, "Those are symbols of accomplishment."
Holding up a pilot's license, he continued: "Travis, Mike, Troy and
Shaun worked hard to earn their pilot's licenses. Mr. Promotor could
not even be bothered to earn a driver's license."
tinydancer/stargazer
"Mark Fenster" <Fenster_2...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b5e42449.03101...@posting.google.com...
> Gentlepeople,
>
> Picture of Rogelio Promotor and the victims at:
>
> http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/oct03/178166.asp
>
> Mr. Promotor consumed 23 (!) beers in seven hours before getting
> behind the wheel of a car. Mr. Promotor was then involved in an
> automobile accident which resulted in the deaths of three people. On
> Fridyay, Mr. Promotor was sentenced to 66 years in jail for his
> actions.
>
> Fenster
I was trying to see what he was charged with, but either it wasn't there or
I'm simply missing it. He got off easy, should've gotten LWOP in my
estimation, at the very least. My hometown, by the way.