Drunken driver sentenced for fatal 4-vehicle wreck

26-year-old killed, boy injured in 2015 crash

JANESVILLE, Wis. — A Janesville woman who was drunk when she was involved in a multicar crash in Rock County in 2015 was sentenced in court Friday.

Rock County Judge Michael Haakenson sentenced 22-year-old Mackenzi S. Adams to two years in jail and six years of extended supervision for homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle.

In a tearful statement in court, Adams apologized for her “selfish actions.”

“I have no excuse for what happened that night but if I could do it all over again, (I would),” Adams said. “I was the one that deserved to go that night.”

In sentencing Adams, Haakenson said he didn’t think the minimum penalty, one year in prison, was warranted because of the nature of the wreck and the life that was lost.

“(It was) a really horrific accident. It could have been much worse and I’m troubled by that,” Haackenson said. He also said statements from Adams’ employer and others characterize her as wonderful, and SAY that she’s been productive since the wreck, at work and with other activities, and that merited a lesser sentence than the maximum penalty.

Prosecutors said Adams was drunk when her Taurus struck a a guardrail just before midnight on June 13, 2015, while going north on Interstate 39 near Beloit. A family in a Jetta stopped to assist Adams, but shortly after, a semitrailer struck the Taurus, which rear-ended the Jetta and a van that had stopped in a chain reaction.

The front-seat passenger in the Jetta, 26-year-old Jessica Lynn Border, was killed.

Two boys, a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old, who were in the back seat of the Jetta, and the driver of the Jetta suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

” This really was a tragedy for everybody involved,” Haakenson said. ” I hope that somewhere, someone remembers this, or something similar to this case, and makes a decision, saying ,’You know what? I’m not going to (take that drink or) mess around with this.”

The judge also ordered that once Adams is on extended supervision, she is not to drink.

Adams pleaded guilty to the felony charge on June 21, 2017. Three other felony charges against Adams were read in but dismissed.

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