Iolan Bill Stierwalt will spend the next 75 months in jail for his role in a drunken-driving accident in Gas that injured a Bronson woman.
Allen County District Judge Daniel Creitz “reluctantly” accepted a plea agreement between Allen County Attorney Jerry Hathaway and Stierwalt’s defense attorney, allowing the 75-month jail sentence for aggravated battery, because Kansas sentencing guidelines recommended a 130-month sentence.
The 75-month sentence is 10 months longer than what originally had been agreed to in February 2015, Hathaway explained. That’s because Stierwalt failed to return to court a month after the original plea agreement to begin his sentence.
He was later arrested in Wyandotte County and returned to Allen County.
Amanda Stewart, whose leg and ankle were badly broken in the accident, provided an emotional victim’s impact statement prior to the sentencing.
She told Creitz and Stierwalt the accident has left her in chronic pain. She was an avid runner, but has been unable to do so since the accident.
She chastized Stierwalt for his “cowardly” actions, first in fleeing the scene of the accident, then in not returning to court in order to begin his jail sentence.
Even so, Stewart said she forgave Stierwalt for his actions.
