A Benton County judge on Friday sentenced a 67-year-old Robbinsdale man to four years in prison for driving with a blood alcohol level of more than three times the legal limit and causing a car crash that fatally injured a Champlin man.
Paul J. Bergman was charged with criminal vehicular homicide following the July 7 crash in which he crossed the centerline and crashed into the vehicle driven by John P. McIntyre, 65, who then underwent five surgeries and spent a week in the intensive care unit before he was taken off life support.
"He suffered! We his family suffered watching him struggle," his wife, Doreen McIntyre, wrote in a victim impact statement given to the court. "His absence has left a gaping hole in my life."
She said she and her husband had spent the July 4th week at their cabin, which they lovingly called a "shack," on Little Rock Lake near Rice. On July 7, Doreen went home to Champlin to get a start on laundry and John went out to eat at a restaurant near St. Cloud.
While driving back to the cabin just after 10 p.m., McIntyre was struck head-on by Bergman's vehicle near Ninth Avenue SE. in Rice, court documents state.
An officer on scene said Bergman "was mumbling, began to doze off, and also noted an odor of alcohol coming from the vehicle," according to court documents. An analysis by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension showed Bergman had an alcohol concentration of 0.272%, more than three times the legal limit of 0.08%.
McIntyre suffered a broken leg and pelvis and was taken to St. Cloud Hospital, where he died on July 15. The medical examiner's report lists blunt force injuries as his cause of death.
Bergman pleaded guilty to one felony count of criminal vehicular homicide in December as part of a plea agreement that dismissed three other counts. He entered a Norgaard plea, which allows Bergman to claim he could not recall committing the crime because he was under the influence at the time.
Judge Michael Jesse sentenced Bergman to four years in prison with credit for 65 days served. Bergman's attorney, Justin Braulick, declined to comment on the case.
Doreen McIntyre described her husband as a "jack-of-all-trades" who had recently retired from Home Depot and as someone who adored his family, including his only granddaughter, Wren, as well as the family dogs and their shack on the lake. They planned to build a house at the lake, buy a motorhome and travel.
"Now that will never happen," McIntyre said. "I have to figure out how to live my life without my loving husband who I was with for 41 years, married for 38. It's not right."
