Drunk driver sentenced to 25 years for crash that killed friend

The Des Moines Register

Dylan Winker changed his plea to guilty during a plea hearing on Friday, April 14, 2017, at the Polk County Courthouse in Des Moines. Winker was driving while intoxicated when he drove the wrong way in the 7100 block of Northeast University Avenue in Pleasant Hill and crashed his vehicle head-on into another vehicle. The crash resulted in the death of Winker's passenger, Stephen Graber, 28. Two people in the other vehicle were seriously injured.

A Des Moines man was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for causing a crash that killed his friend and injured two others.

Dylan Steven Eric Winker, 24, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide while intoxicated and serious injury by vehicle in connection on April 14. On Oct. 11, 2016, he caused a crash in Pleasant Hill that killed Stephen Graber, 28, a passenger in Winker's vehicle. He also seriously injured two others in another vehicle.

Winker consumed nine drinks in the 90 minutes before he got behind the wheel, according to the Polk County Attorney's Office.

He was driving a vehicle the wrong way around 9:30 p.m. Oct. 11 in the 7100 block of Northeast University Avenue. He crashed head-on into another vehicle carrying Brownie and Cheryll Polley of Carlisle.

The couple was seriously injured, with each suffering broken bones. Brownie Polley, 72, also had a punctured lung.

Court records show Winker's blood-alcohol concentration was .179 percent, more than twice Iowa's legal limit of .08 percent.

Court records also show Winker had amphetamines and marijuana in his system.

Register reporter Kathy Bolten contributed to this report.