Over the objection of the prosecution, six months of confinement is the sentence for a 44-year-old man who was drunk when he crashed his vehicle late at night in Lake Elmo and killed one of his passengers.
James Lohr of Lake Elmo was sentenced Friday in Washington County District Court in connection with the wreck on June 6, 2019, that killed Bunpot Makmeetanagunchon, from Thailand, who was visiting a relative in White Bear Lake.
Lohr, who pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide, was given a 180-day sentence by Judge Doug Meslow, who ordered the first 90 days be served on electric home monitoring and the balance on work release.
He's also been put on probation for seven years.
Meslow stayed a 4¾-year sentence that would have had Lohr imprisoned for slightly more than three years.
"We asked for the prison sentence," Assistant County Attorney Thomas Wedes said Monday. Wedes added that the family of Makmeetanagunchon supported the sentenced imposed.
In a preliminary breath test, Lohr's blood alcohol content was 0.189%, more than twice the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.
The vehicle hit a tree about 12:10 a.m. in the 900 block of N. Lake Elmo Avenue, across the street from the Cimarron Golf Course.
Lohr and one of his passengers were standing outside the wreckage and alerted sheriff's deputies to Makmeetanagunchon in the back seat. Emergency medical personnel took him to Regions Hospital, where he died.
