Left: Police in Muskego, Wisconsin, investigate a fatal crash that killed a 77-year-old woman. Right: Casey Yiannackopoulos (Muskego Police Department).
A Wisconsin man who had been drinking with his mother before crashing into a ditch and fleeing the scene, leaving her dying in the passenger seat, has been sentenced to prison.
Casey Yiannackopoulos, 48, pleaded guilty to homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle. A judge ordered him to serve 18 years in prison, followed by eight years of probation. He had initially faced charges including first-degree reckless homicide, hit-and-run involving death, and two counts of resisting or obstructing an officer.
At sentencing, Yiannackopoulos addressed his family from the courtroom and apologized for what happened.
“The closest thing to God you will feel is the love of your mother,” he told the judge, according to a courtroom report from local NBC affiliate WTMJ.
Judge Ralph Ramirez, however, made clear that remorse did not erase the gravity of the crime.
“I know that Mr. Yiannackopoulos keenly feels the loss of his mother but I refuse to feel sorry for the man who caused the death of his own mother,” Ramirez said.
As Law&Crime previously reported, police responded around 7:15 p.m. on Nov. 2 to the S7100 block of Hillendale Drive in Muskego, a Milwaukee suburb, after receiving a report of a single-vehicle crash.
When they arrived, they found a 77-year-old woman in the front passenger seat. She was the only person in the car. The driver, later identified as Yiannackopoulos, was nowhere to be found. First responders had to break through the front and rear passenger windows so they could extricate her from the car. The woman was unconscious but breathing. She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead about an hour later. Her name has not been publicly released.
A probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime said several witnesses saw Yiannackopoulos run away. They said he appeared to be intoxicated as he was unsteady on his feet and reeked of booze. Yiannackopoulos told the witnesses that he was going to get help but he never did, cops say.
Home surveillance video captured the crash. It allegedly showed Yiannackopoulos driving at least 50 mph in a 30 mph zone before he left the road and crashed.
Cops learned that Yiannackopoulos’ mother lived down the street from where the crash occurred. When they went inside, they saw a ladder leading to a crawl space with the plywood door slightly ajar. Yiannackopoulos refused to come down and yelled and cursed at the officers. Around 10:45 p.m. cops sent a drone up to the crawl space. They saw Yiannackopoulos hiding under some blankets and a plastic bin cover.
He eventually had to be physically removed and taken into custody, the affidavit said. Cops said he had bloodshot and glassy eyes. Yiannackopoulos said “it was an accident” and he would have been “way more cooperative” if he knew at the scene that his mother was dead, according to the complaint.
Court Commissioner Daniel Rieck seemed flabbergasted at Yiannackopoulos’ alleged actions.
“As I read through your criminal complaint, sir, quite frankly, the word that came to mind over and over was depraved,” Rieck said, according to a courtroom report from local ABC affiliate WISN. “This went from driving while drunk, having what one would presume is a very unfortunate, traumatic accident, losing your mother, but then quite literally leaving her to die. Why? Because you didn’t want to get in trouble.”
