Man gets year for crash that killed Lake City veteran

Anthony Mancheski, a 21-year-old Maplewood, Minn., man, was sentenced Friday after being charged with criminal vehicular homicide, a felony, for a fatal crash he caused just north of the Highway 61 bridge in Hastings May 3, 2010.

Judge Mary Hannon placed Mancheski on probation for 10 years and ordered him to spend one year in the Washington County Jail.

The four-vehicle crash killed Brian Jacobson, a 24-year-old Lake City man and a member of the Army National Guard. Jacobson had served two tours of duty in Iraq as part of the 434th Chemical Co., returning in July 2009 from his most recent deployment. He was married and had two children.

Before Hannon gave her sentence, Jacobson’s family gave an emotional victim impact statement and played a video montage of his life.

“This has been a terrible tragedy for all concerned,” Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said. “There is no joy here today for anyone. We have a vital young man with a family who was killed in this awful crash and another who has now been held responsible. The only consolation we can have is that there has been a little bit of justice that has been achieved with bringing this incident to a close.”

According to the complaint, Mancheski was traveling south on Highway 61 at a high rate of speed and weaving between vehicles.

A Minnesota State Patrol crash reconstruction showed that Mancheski lost control and collided with another southbound vehicle. Both vehicles crossed into northbound traffic, where he collided with a car driven by Jacobson. Jacobson was pronounced dead at the scene. Mancheski’s vehicle also struck the southeast guardrail and a semi-truck.

The complaint says Mancheski had a history of being late to work and he had been warned that he had to be at work at 6:25 a.m. Mancheski told officers he was on his way to work at the time of the crash. The crash reconstruction showed that he had been driving between 83 and 89 miles per hour when he struck the first vehicle.

Mancheski pleaded guilty to the charge in Washington County Court Nov. 18.

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