A Racine County woman will spend a decade behind bars after pleading guilty to causing a deadly drunk driving crash in October 2022. Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz sentenced 44-year-old Kristi Lichtenwalner on Monday, October 6, to ten years in prison followed by another ten years of extended supervision.
She was also ordered to pay $11,545.57 in restitution to the victim’s family. Lichtenwalner pleaded guilty in August to one felony count of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle (2nd+ offense). Three other charges were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
According to the criminal complaint, Racine County Sheriff’s deputies responded just before midnight on October 2, 2022, to reports of a rollover crash along Durand Avenue, east of 67th Drive. When deputies arrived, they found an SUV upside down in a ditch roughly ten feet from the road.
The SUV’s owner was discovered about thirty feet away, lying unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Nearby, officers found Lichtenwalner and another woman. Lichtenwalner appeared “in great distress, crying and screaming,” the complaint said. Deputies noticed a strong smell of alcohol coming from her breath, as per FOX6 News Milwaukee.
A search of the overturned SUV revealed an open bottle of Ole Smoky Tennessee Whiskey inside a purse. Lichtenwalner was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of minor injuries. At the hospital, she repeatedly denied being the driver, claiming the SUV’s owner had been behind the wheel.
She also told deputies that he had been drinking heavily but that they “were not fighting” before the crash. Deputies reported that Lichtenwalner’s speech was slurred, and she admitted she had not been wearing her seatbelt. On October 6, 2022, investigators obtained a search warrant for Lichtenwalner’s hospital blood sample.
The following week, detectives extracted data from the SUV’s airbag control module and found blood and other physical evidence inside the vehicle. A long strand of hair was embedded in the shattered driver’s side window. Months later, a DNA analysis confirmed that blood found on the driver’s airbag matched Lichtenwalner.
The complaint also noted she had an abrasion across the bridge of her nose — an injury consistent with being struck by an airbag while sitting in the driver’s seat. Investigators later spoke to a witness who saw Lichtenwalner and the victim switch seats before driving off. Surveillance footage from a nearby liquor store also showed her exiting the driver’s seat before the crash.
When confronted with the DNA evidence during a follow-up interview in August 2023, Lichtenwalner declined to answer questions, saying she needed to speak with her attorney. She will serve ten years in prison and ten years under supervision following her release.