Families want stiffer penalty for drunk driver

Master Sgt. Fulton Regnier already will be on his way to Afghanistan when his nephew's killer is sentenced on Tuesday.

Originally scheduled for March 4 - one year and one day after drunk driver Daniel Wade Resler, 32, struck and killed Brad Michael Williams, 19, of Somers and Kyle David McCullugh, 16, of Kalispell as they walked to a convenience store - the hearing coincided with the week of leave that Regnier earned between his training and deployment.

But then the hearing was moved to 10 a.m. on March 18, dashing any possibility of Regnier attending.

"Now you're dealing with the impact this has on the family while you're deployed, because they got no closure," Regnier said during an interview earlier this month.

Since charges against Resler were filed, at least half a dozen hearing dates have been vacated and rescheduled, said Regnier, who has spent the last year training with his Army National Guard unit in Helena. Each change forced him to cancel time he had requested off.

"I think Sanders County owes the family some kind of explanation why this took so long," he said, remembering his nephew when he brought over MREs or wearing the fake gold Rolex he brought him back from Iraq.

The original sentencing date conflicted with the trial of Douglas James Guill - who is accused of sexually abusing a girl for 16 years. District Court Judge Kim Christopher, who will hear arguments during Resler's hearing, is presiding over the Guill trial.

But the Resler case's pace is just one of several grievances the victims' families, who believe the case has been mishandled from the start, have against Sanders County authorities.

"I really have a problem with the way this is being handled from the top down," said Carla Hayek, Brad Williams' mother.

They say requests for a change of venue weren't even considered and, that despite promises, they weren't consulted before a plea deal was struck. Resler is treated more like a victim than the perpetrator, they say.

"This whole thing has been a fiasco from the very beginning," said Leo McCullugh, Kyle's father.

Pursuant to a plea agreement, Resler may serve as little as one year in Montana State Prison - a deal the victims' families say doesn't serve justice.

"Someone's dropping the ball somewhere," said McCullugh.

Judge Christopher, however, is not obligated to observe the plea arrangement.

In exchange for Resler's guilty pleas to two counts of vehicular homicide, prosecutors are recommending that he receive two 30-year prison sentences - each with 25 years suspended - to run concurrently.

He would be incarcerated for at least one year before becoming eligible for the WATCh program, an intensive, six-month treatment regimen for felony DUI offenders at Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs.

After completing the program, Resler would be considered for placement in a pre-release center or other intensive supervision program.

"For this guy to get a year in prison for killing two people just isn't right," said Cindy Regnier, Williams' aunt. Family members have said they would like to see Resler serve one year in prison for every year of life he took.

Sanders County Attorney Coleen I. Magera has said the plea agreement was reached in light of "several evidentiary concerns that had to be considered in the negotiations."

Family members believe Magera was referring to a blood sample taken from Resler at Clark Fork Valley Hospital, which she was told may have been mislabeled or left briefly unattended, thus interrupting the evidence's chain of custody.

"If they have reasons for why this is being handled this way, they need to let [the parents] know what they are," Cindy Regnier said.

Magera has not returned repeated calls for comment.

According to the Montana Highway Patrol, Resler was driving a 2003 Dodge pickup westbound on Montana 200 just before 2 a.m. on March 3, 2007.

At a curve about a mile east of Plains, Resler drifted off the right side of the highway and struck Williams and McCullugh, who were walking westbound in the gravel on the side of the road. Resler's blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit.

Williams died at the scene; McCullugh was flown to St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, where he died the next day.

The proposed sentence for Resler also has a community service component that would require him to clean a one-mile stretch of Montana 200 near where the collision occurred, make $100 donations in the names of Williams and McCullugh annually to the Montana chapter of Mothers against Drunk Driving, and work with either that organization or local schools on drinking and driving education for the next decade.

Resler is free on bond pending the sentencing hearing.

Brad's favorite color was blue, and his family plans to wear T-shirts in that color to Tuesday's hearing as a show of unity, support and homage.

"I don't think the courtroom is going to hold all the friends and family," Cindy Regnier said.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com