Reeseville Man Sentenced To Prison For Vehicular Homicide

(Lowell) A Reeseville man was sentenced to two years in prison Friday for driving under the influence of inhalants when he killed a pedestrian. Cody Buechel pled no contest last month to a felony count of Homicide by Negligent Use of a Vehicle; two misdemeanor drug paraphernalia charges were dismissed but read into the record. The 23-year-old was driving a pickup truck on Highway G in the town of Lowell in September of 2015 when 17-year-old Lukas Jaeger was struck. Prosecutors argued that Buechel inhaled the product Dust-Off minutes before driving. Buechel drove up on the front lawn of a corner residence before driving over the center line into the southbound lanes where the victim was struck. The vehicle then continued down Highway G later crashing into a culvert. In addition to the can of Dust-Off, investigators say marijuana paraphernalia was also inside the truck. District Attorney Klomberg called the incident an “unimaginable tragedy for the victim and his family” and said the “young man was killed due to the careless and dangerous driving behavior of the defendant.”  Judge Steven Bauer said at sentencing that Buechel killed, “a totally innocent human being.” Bauer recognized that, while the State Lab could not show the chemical from the cleaning product in his system, the circumstantial evidence indicated that the use contributed to the crash. In addition to prison, Buechel was placed on extended supervision for four years and ordered to pay $15-thosuand dollars in restitution.