Finley receives 58 months in deadly hit-and-run sentencing
(ABC 6 News) – An Austin man convicted of criminal vehicular homicide was sentenced to 58 months, or just under 5 years at the MN Correctional Facility in St. Cloud Tuesday, Sept. 17.
Darin Douglas Finley had previously pleaded guilty in the death of Melissa Rack in exchange for a recommended 180-day sentence.
However, after the defendant earned another operating while intoxicated charge in Wisconsin a month and a half before his sentencing, Finley’s defense withdrew their motion for a mere 6-month sentence.
Finley was convicted of a second charge of driving while intoxicated in February of 2023 — less than two months after killing Rack.
He was sentenced to a concurrent 364 days for violating his probation conditions in that DWI case.
Judge Jeffrey Kritzer gave Finley 60 days’ credit for time already spent in Mower County Custody. He noted that Finley must serve at least two-thirds of the sentence in prison, while the remaining third could be commuted to probation.
In a victim impact statement, Rack’s aunt Donna Fuller told the court Finley had made a series of wrong choices in Dec. 2022 — in getting behind the wheel drunk, leaving the scene of his crash with Rack, and failing to call first responders for aid.
His latest criminal charges showed he had not learned, Fuller said in court.
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ABC 6 NEWS — There will be a sentencing hearing on Tuesday, September 17 for an Austin man that was convicted of criminal vehicular homicide in an incident that took place in December 2022.
Darin Finley, 37, was convicted on the charge earlier this year, and will learn his fate at 3:30 p.m.
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The charge stems from an incident that took place on December 30, 2022, when Austin Police were dispatched to a call of a woman lying in the road, having apparently been hit by a car. The victim, Melissa Rack, would later be pronounced dead at the hospital.
Following an investigation, police tracked the vehicle involved in the incident to Finley’s home. While questioning him, court documents say officers observed Finley to have “glassy eyes,” and say he “lit up one cigarette after another and appeared to be intoxicated.”
Finley was convicted in May, on one count of felony criminal vehicular homicide. He pleaded guilty in exchange for a capped 180-day jail sentence.
However, on July 26, Finley was taken back into Mower County custody after an alleged DWI in Monroe County, Wisconsin.
Official Operating While Intoxicated (OWI), operating a vehicle after license revocation, and unlawful use of license charges were officially filed in Wisconsin Sept. 6.