A judge has denied the request of the driver in a serious hit and run accident who wanted to be released early from prison.
Will Slinger, 31, of Franklin, is set to be released from the Putnamville Correctional Facility in August. But earlier this month, he had requested to be released as soon as possible.
Johnson Superior 3 Judge Lance Hamner denied that request.
In a hearing earlier this month, Slinger had asked to be released from prison early so he could pursue further addiction treatment outside of prison. He also wanted to return to his job at a Franklin restaurant and take classes at Ivy Tech Community College. Slinger had also filed paperwork asking for his court costs to be waived, which Hamner also denied.
In the hearing, Hamner told Slinger that the 2016 accident that seriously injured three people was not caused by Slinger’s addiction. It was Slinger’s choice to get behind the wheel that caused the accident, Hamner said in the hearing.
He also pointed to Slinger’s history after a 2005 crash that killed April Mulry, a young mother, where Slinger was the driver. Slinger still made a choice to drive that day in 2016, showing he didn’t care about the other people he hurt, he said.
Hamner said in the hearing he would consider Slinger’s request, which would have released him after serving a little more than 16 months of a four-year sentence. He denied the request that day, according to court records.
Now, Slinger’s earliest release date is Aug. 6, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.
Grant Black, who was seriously injured in the 2016 crash, said he didn’t think Slinger deserved to be released early from prison.
“He has left me with a pile of medical bills, car payment, and physical limitations that I will never be able to recover from. He deserves life in prison. He shouldn’t be allowed to ever see the outside of a prison, or ever be close enough to a vehicle that he could potentially be tempted to drive,” Black said.
Slinger was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to the three felony counts after the hit-and-run wreck that seriously injured three people in January 2016.
Witnesses said Slinger’s vehicle was headed west on King Street in Franklin and driving too fast when it hit a vehicle from behind driven by Black, forcing Black’s vehicle into oncoming traffic and into the path of Mary Anne Litwicki and her husband Mitch Wolhmuth. Black had multiple injuries, including 16 fractured ribs, a broken fibula, a broken sternum and a shattered elbow. Wolhmuth was in a coma for more than a month and suffered a serious brain injury. Litwicki had a shattered wrist and compound fracture in her ankle and has since had at least two surgeries.
Slinger drove away from the accident, and was arrested months later after police sought the public’s help in finding the vehicle from the crash. A tip from the public after police released surveillance video led investigators to Slinger.
The maximum amount of prison time he could receive was four years under Indiana law, which prosecutors said was unfortunate at the time.
Slinger received added credit time for completing the Purposeful Incarceration program in prison, a therapeutic community program for inmates with substance abuse issues.
He was also sentenced to three-and-a-half years on probation after his release from prison, which his attorney, Mike Kyle, said he plans to ask to modify at a later time.
