A Chippewa County woman has entered a guilty plea in the drunk driving hit and run death of a bicyclist. Krista Holler of Cadott struck a plea deal Thursday on a charge of homicide by OWI, and will be sentenced April 10th, according to The Chippewa Herald.
The 28-year-old Holler was charged in the June 1st death of 71-year-old Robert Tschabrun, a Stanley dentist whose body, clad in a full bicyclist suit and helmet, was found in an east side ditch of County Highway G. Tschabrun’s severely damaged bike was found tangled in a barbed wire fence.
Holler, who was driving on a suspended license, registered a blood alcohol level of 0.123 nine hours after the crash, about 50 percent above the legal limit of 0.08.
A sheriff’s investigator testified during a preliminary hearing that Holler left work and went to a tavern where her cousin was having a birthday party. She told officers she had two beers – but a bartender said he remembered serving her 4 to 5 shots of hard liquor, and that Holler was in no condition to drive.
Barron County District Attorney Angela Beranek, acting as a special prosecutor, and Judge James A. Babler of Barron County were assigned to the case because Holler is a relative of a member of the Chippewa County Sheriff’s Department.