Man Sentenced to 2 Years in Drunk-Driving Death in 1979

A man who eluded the law for nearly a decade pleaded guilty to manslaughter Wednesday in the death of a Canyon Country teen-ager in a drunk-driving accident.

Gregg Wendlandt, 38, was sentenced to two years in prison for killing Mytina Lee Bailey, 18, in a traffic accident Feb. 17, 1979, a week before her wedding date.

With credit for jail time served since his February arrest, Wendlandt probably will be out of prison in less than seven months, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth L. Barshop.

Wendlandt could have received more jail time if he had been sentenced under a law enacted two years ago, Barshop said. Because of public outrage over drunk-driving accidents, the Legislature in 1987 stiffened the maximum sentence for vehicular manslaughter to 10 years.

But Wendlandt, by law, had to be sentenced under the statute that existed in 1979, when the maximum for vehicular manslaughter was three years, Barshop said. To further complicate matters, Barshop said, there was no law against fleeing to avoid criminal charges in 1979.

Judge Ronald S. Coen ruled that because Wendlandt had no prior felony convictions and pleaded guilty before a trial, he should not receive the maximum sentence now allowed.

Wendlandt was arrested in Milwaukee on Feb. 10, after he was in a street fight, authorities there said. At the time of his arrest, he admitted that he had used several aliases, including Gerald Voigt, they said. The authorities ran the aliases through a computer and discovered that Voigt was wanted in California for manslaughter.

Wendlandt agreed to return to California after extradition proceedings were started. His guilty plea came just hours before attorneys were to begin picking a jury for his trial.

The accident occurred at the intersection of Sierra Highway and Via Princessa at 2:45 a.m. Bailey, driving a pickup truck she had received as a birthday gift from her fiancee two weeks before, was waiting to make a left turn onto Via Princessa when Wendlandt’s car hit her head-on, authorities said.

Tests showed that Wendlandt’s blood-alcohol level was 0.13, investigators said. The legal limit in California is 0.10. Bailey died 10 days after the accident from brain injuries suffered in the crash.

After his arrest 10 years ago, Wendlandt posted $500 bail and disappeared.