Sentencing is set for Monday morning for a Minnesota man who was drunk and speeding when he hit and killed a woman’s SUV.

A drink-driving man was jailed for four years on Monday for drink-driving and speeding hit by a woman’s SUV on southbound Minnesota Highway and killed her.

John R. Deleo, 54, of Lake Crystal, Minnesota, was sentenced in Brown County District Court after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide in connection with the Aug. 17, 2023, crash in New Ulm on Hwy. . 68 and S. 15th Street, where Sharon A. Portner, 82, of New Ulm, died.

Given the two days he spent in jail after his arrest, Deleo is expected to serve the first 2⅔ years of his sentence and the remainder on supervised release.

A week before the sentencing, attorney James Kettner appealed to the court to spare his client a prison term and to assign him a probationary term of up to five years.

Kuettner said in his statement that Deleo remained at the scene of the accident and tried to “assist Portner, and he only left (her) side at the direction of law enforcement.”

The attorney also noted that Deleo was sober after the crash, and therefore a particularly low risk of reoffending.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police arrived to find two damaged vehicles near 15th and S. Broadway Streets. An ambulance took Portner to New Ulm Medical Center, where she died later that day.