Colter Rounds, the motorist who caused a traffic crash that killed 17-year-old Wayland High School student Ethan Mutschler has been sentenced to a year in jail.
Rounds also was ordered to serve five years or probation in his sentencing Thursday in Kent County Circuit Court.
Mutschler, a three-year letterman on the Wayland High School varsity football team as a lineman and a super sub off the bench for the Wildcats’ basketball team, was killed July 12 when the car he was driving was struck broadside on Wilson Avenue in Byron Center. Authorities indicated that Rounds was driving more than 95 mph, 40 mph above the speed limit in that area, before the crash.
Rounds pleaded guilty in December to reckless driving causing death. His request for work release during his jail term was denied.
A year for killing an innocent person, that’s what justice is these days? God help us.
You work hard, obey the rules and laws and this is what to expect as punishment? Who was the idiot judge?
Judge of Record: SMOLENSKI, SARA J.
Makes me sick! Is this a “reward” because alcohol wasn’t involved?!
I don’t think Sara Smolenski was the judge who handed down the sentencing in this case. The judge was Curt Benson.
If one read’s GR Press coverage and Judge Benson’s comments while sentencing Colton Rounds it looks like Ethan Mutschler’s survivors spoke to the judge before sentencing based on Judge Benson’s statement about the family’s loss and the driver; “They want you to suffer the punishment the law imposes but they want you to be a good man in the future.”
Ethan Mutschler’s older sister, aunt and grandfather all spoke to the driver of their loss and their hope the driver learns from his time in jail and following probation.
A year at a county jail is not a pleasant experience. Worse than a minimum security state prison and 5 years of probation means 5 years where your probation officer is dictating your schedule. Not as light a sentence as it seems.