He also pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle while intoxicated and using weapons while intoxicated — both first-degree misdemeanors.
Judge Richard O’Neill set sentencing at 8:15 a.m. Sept. 24.
Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Saunders said during the hearing Friday that Fording’s blood alcohol level was 0.33, more than four times the legal limit.
Fording was driving an ATV that crashed just after 2:30 a.m. June 7 in a wooded area along Interstate 70 in Bethel Twp. when the vehicle flipped and killed Wilbanks.
Wilbanks was ejected and run over by the ATV after it tipped over on an embankment, according to the sheriff’s office.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Saunders decline to comment after the hearing Friday.
The maximum sentence for vehicular homicide is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine and a mandatory drivers license suspension of three years to life, O’Neill said.
The OVI charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail, fines between $375 and $1,075 and a drivers license suspension of six months to a year, O’Neill said.
Fording could also be sentenced to six months in jail, fined $1,000, forced to forfeit his gun and pay court costs for using a weapon while intoxicated, he said.
The maximum sentence for the three charges if they run consecutively could put Fording in prison for six years and force him to pay more than $1,200 in fines, O’Neill said.
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