Drunk Driver Sentenced in 8 Athlete Deaths

Declaring “this was no accident,” a judge sentenced Clinton Haskins on Thursday to 14 to 20 years in prison for killing eight college students in a drunken-driving collision.

Haskins, 22, was also ordered to pay $81,042 in restitution to the families of the victims and was fined $8,008 by District Judge Jeffrey A. Donnell.

“You chose to get behind the wheel of a 10,000-pound truck and drive drunk,” Donnell told Haskins in an 18-minute address after hearing nearly five hours of testimony from friends and relatives of the victims and Haskins in the packed courtroom.

“This was no accident, and no mistake. It was inevitable. The only question was who was going to die and how long it was going to take,” the judge said.

Haskins, of Maybell, Colo., pleaded guilty Feb. 7 to eight counts of aggravated vehicular homicide that stemmed from the Sept. 16, 2001, crash.

Under the plea, prosecutors recommended 14 to 20 years in prison for each count, to be served concurrently. He could have received up to 160 years in prison.

The head-on collision wiped out two-thirds of the University of Wyoming’s cross-country team.

Haskins, a member of the university’s rodeo team, was hospitalized five days. He graduated this spring while free on $100,000 bond.