COLDWATER, MI (WNWN/WTVB) – A Fremont, Indiana man was ordered to serve between 42 months and 15 years in the Michigan Department of Corrections on Wednesday in Branch County Circuit Court after he entered a no contest plea to a charge of O.W.I. Causing Death in connection with a June 2019 crash which took the lives of three children as well as a unborn child.
23-year-old Tyler Frye entered into a plea agreement that was worked out by Prosecutor Zach Stempien and defense attorney Fred Taylor.
In exchange for Frye’s plea, all other charges were dismissed by prosecutors. Frye was given credit for 14 days already served in the Branch County Jail. He remanded immediately to the Department of Corrections.
When the plea agreement was filed on May 11, Stempien said in a statement, “In determining what, if any, plea should be offered in this case, the Branch County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office considered multiple factors, including the victim’s position, age of the case, strength of the case, potential sentence, and history of the defendant, with the ultimate goal to seek justice for those affected by the Defendant’s action. Michigan Courts are required to consult sentencing guidelines in levying a term of incarceration, which determines the range of the minimum term of incarceration. Considering the likely Michigan Sentencing Guidelines, the victims’ position towards sentencing and involvement in the prosecution of this case, the Defendant’s history, and the ongoing year and a half long prohibition against jury trials in Branch County due to COVID-19, this Office found that a plea to the most serious charge for which the Defendant was charged a just resolution of this case.”
Michigan State Police said at the time of the crash that 6-year-old Lillian Graber, 4-year-old Moses Graber and 2-year-old Jacob Graber died after a pickup truck driven by Frye hit the back of their Amish horse-drawn carriage on Kelley Road south of Lester Road.
The mother of the fatal victims was pregnant and lost her baby. She along with another child were seriously injured.
Comments