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Man gets 15 years prison for crash that killed couple

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Brandon Ballweg, right, in court Monday with his lawyer, John Smerlinski. (Photo by Ed Treleven)

By Ed Treleven, Wisconsin State Journal

Seven months after he lost control of the car he was driving at high speed, sent it careening across a Madison highway and killed a Cottage Grove couple, a rural Stoughton man was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison.

Brandon L. Ballweg, 27, accepted responsibility quickly for what he did, Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland said, but his crime was so grave that it demanded a prison sentence that will keep him locked up into his 40s to protect the public.

On Feb. 25, Ballweg was driving at speeds estimated by the State Patrol at 87 to 92 mph when he crossed the Highway 30 median near Fair Oaks Avenue, went airborne and struck a Ford Explorer driven by Kirk U’Ren, 37, who was headed to a Badgers basketball game with his wife, Jennifer Steiner, 34. U’Ren died at the scene, while Steiner died about two weeks later.

They left behind 1-year-old twin sons, now being raised by family members.

“They would have known they were going to die” as Ballweg’s modified Honda Civic flew toward their windshield, said Assistant District Attorney William Brown. “Momentarily, for a microsecond, but they knew they were going to die.”

 

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