ST. PAUL
A Minneapolis man will serve more than nine years in prison for driving drunk earlier this year in Brooklyn Center, Minn., running a red light and killing two people.
Yeng Vue, 21, was ordered Friday in Hennepin County District Court to the maximum sentence under state guidelines for the March 5 crash, said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom, whose office prosecuted the case and recommended the sentence.
"This was a man who was almost three times over the legal driving limit; he was speeding and he blew through a red light, killing two innocent victims," Backstrom said.
Prosecutors initially planned to ask for an eight-year prison sentence.
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But "the defendant has shown little remorse," Backstrom said.
District Judge Lloyd Zimmerman ordered the sentence after hearing statements from the families of those killed: Jessica Valis, 21, of Brooklyn Center and her passenger, George Kaffey, 22, of Minneapolis. Vue pleaded guilty last month to two counts of felony criminal vehicular homicide on the day that he was scheduled to go to trial.
His defense attorney did not return a message seeking comment Friday.
Vue received 224 days for time served and was ordered to pay restitution to the victims' families.
Vue had been drinking beer and hard liquor at a friend's house in Minneapolis before the crash, a criminal complaint said. Vue, driving a 2005 Toyota Camry, was headed to a cousin's house when he ran a red light and collided with Valis' car, a 1996 Geo Prism,
near the intersection of 57th Avenue North and Minnesota 100 in Brooklyn Center.
Valis and Kaffey died at the scene.
When officers arrived, they found a witness restraining Vue, who smelled of alcohol and was unsteady on his feet. An on-scene breath test registered Vue's blood-alcohol content at 0.18, the complaint said. Minnesota's legal limit for driving is 0.08.
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There were 2,500 people seriously injured and 131 deaths in alcohol-related traffic accidents in Minnesota last year. Public safety efforts have tried to lower that statistic, but alcohol-related crashes are still a serious problem.
Vue has a pending drunken-driving charge from July 14, 2010, the complaint said. His license was revoked, and he was driving an uninsured vehicle at the time of the crash.
The case was prosecuted by Dakota County because of a conflict of interest. The mother of one of those killed in the crash is a Hennepin County employee.
Distributed by MCT Information Services
