24-Year-Old Man Pleads Guilty To Killing Girlfriend In DUI Crash On Brownsville Road
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A man was sentenced to at least 3 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in connection with the DUI crash that killed his girlfriend in Whitehall.
Tyler DeGraffenreid pleaded guilty to one count of homicide by vehicle while DUI. The Allegheny County DA's office said on Tuesday that in exchange for the guilty plea, they agreed to drop his remaining charges and give him a sentence of 3 to 6 years.
He also pleaded guilty to a DUI that happened a month after the deadly crash, the DA's office says. For that case, he was sentenced to a consecutive 3 to 6 months and will serve 3 years probation at the end of his prison sentence.
Police say 24-year-old Tyler Degraffenreid's car was going more than 100 miles per hour along Brownsville Road near the South Hills Country Club when he lost control.
The crash happened on the night of Dec. 15 last year.
The car went airborne before barrel-rolling through a yard. The black Honda Accord ended up on its roof.
According to the criminal complaint, responding officers found Degraffenreid still in the vehicle. They say he was able to unfasten his seat belt and the first responders pulled him out.
As he was telling them his girlfriend was missing, police say they "detected a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from Tyler."
His girlfriend, identified 23-year-old Victoria Verscharen, was thrown from the vehicle and died.
Following an autopsy, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office said she died of blunt force trauma.
