Michigan man gets 4 years in prison for deaths of 3 in car accident

Paul Never appears in Lucas County Court before Judge Stacy Cook on February 28, 2011.

An Ottawa Lake, Mich. man who was drunk when a car slammed into his pickup, killing three young men, was sentenced Monday to four years in prison.

Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Stacy Cook also ordered Paul Never, 69, to pay $10,000 in fines and suspended his driver’s license for life.

Never, who pleaded guilty in July to three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, was backing out of the parking lot at Club Chablis, 5405 North Detroit Ave., just before 2 a.m. last Oct. 21 when his pickup was struck by a car driven by Noel Papenfuse, 22, of 2823 103rd St., which was traveling at a high rate of speed.

Mr. Papenfuse’s three passengers — cousins Bryan Richardson, 20, Bradley Richardson, Jr., 21, both of Toledo, and their friend, Noah McFadden, 23, of Sylvania — were pronounced dead at the scene.

Last week, a jury acquitted Mr. Papenfuse on felony charges of aggravated vehicular homicide but found him guilty of three counts of vehicular homicide, all first-degree misdemeanors. He faces up to a year and a half in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Cook Oct. 31.