A Michigan City resident has been charged with operating while intoxicated-causing death, in connection with a fatal accident in August 2010 at the intersection of U.S. Highway 20 and Waverly Road in Porter, the Porter County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said.

Sandra Ann Everly, 53, with listed addresses in both Michigan City and Westville, was charged on March 30 with four felony counts and three misdemeanor, the most serious a Class B felony: operating a motor vehicle and being over 21 with an alcohol concentration of greater than .15 gram per 100 milliliters of blood or 210 liters of the person’s breath-causing death.

A Class B felony is punishable by a term of six to 20 years.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed by Sgt. John McMahon of the Porter Police Department, at 9:40 p.m. on Aug. 20 Everly was westbound on U.S. 20 in a Chevrolet Cavalier when she rear ended a second vehicle at the intersection of Waverly Road. One witness, also westbound on U.S. 20, advised that Everly nearly sideswiped them and had been “moving all over the road,” while another—at the Porter Quick Stop—advised that he did not see brake lights activate on the Cavalier prior to the crash, McMahon stated in his affidavit.

Everly and her passenger, William Hertaus, were both trapped in the Cavalier and had to be extricated by Porter firefighters. Everly—who “was not wearing a seat belt”—sustained facial injuries and a compound fracture of her right ankle, McMahon stated, while Hertaus suffered injuries to his neck and head.

Hertaus died of his injuries less than a week later, on Aug. 25, McMahon stated.

When McMahon asked Everly what happened, she replied “I don’t know, I just rear-ended someone, I think,” he stated.

Everly subsequently registered a blood alcohol content of .27 percent on a blood test, McMahon stated.

Everly was booked into the Porter County Jail at 10:29 a.m. Tuesday.

Posted 4/6/2011