SEATTLE (AP) — A repeat drunk driver who plowed his pickup truck into a family walking across a Seattle street has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Mark Mullan was sentenced Friday. He had pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and vehicular assault for the March 25 crash that killed new grandparents Judy and Dennis Schulte, retired teachers from Kokomo, Ind., who had recently moved to Seattle. Their daughter-in-law, Karina Ulriksen-Schulte, and her infant son, Elias, were injured.
Mullan, a journeyman electrician with five prior drunken driving arrests, had a blood-alcohol content about three times the legal limit when he hit the family as they crossed a street in the Wedgwood neighborhood in broad daylight March 25. The 51-year-old was on probation from a recent case, his license was suspended, and he was supposed to have installed an ignition interlock device in his truck.
Ulriksen-Schulte suffered a broken pelvis and head injury. Elias, who was 10 days old at the time, sustained skull fractures.
In July, Dan Schulte joined Gov. Jay Inslee as he signed a law requiring that anyone suspected of a second impaired driving offense face mandatory arrest and have an interlock device installed on their vehicle within five days of being charged.