Belden Man Going To Prison For Fatal Wreck

HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) – A Mississippi man is set to spend 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to a drunken-driving crash that killed two students from a high school in the Memphis suburb of Eads, Tennessee.

WMC-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1re7YXZ ) a judge on Monday sentenced Melandus Penson of Belden to 120 years but suspended half of the sentence.

Penson pleaded guilty to two counts of DUI death in the May 31, 2015, crash that killed two 17-year-old girls, Maddie Kruse and Rachel Lynch.

He also pleaded guilty to two counts of DUI negligent injury and a charge of aggravated assault.

The Briarcrest Christian School students were going on vacation with two other friends and were being driven by the grandmother of one girl. The crash happened on U.S. Highway 78 in Marshall County, Mississippi.