Woman charged in deaths of Marquette athletes

MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin driver involved in a traffic crash last week that killed two Marquette University lacrosse players was drunk at the time, authorities alleged Wednesday in charging her with vehicular homicide.

Amandria Brunner, 41, of West Allis, faces two counts of homicide by an intoxicated use of a vehicle while having a prior intoxicant-related conviction. She faces up to 80 years in prison if convicted of both counts.

According to a criminal complaint, the crash happened on Friday in Milwaukee when Brunner tried to turn left in front of an SUV that was taking six Marquette men’s lacrosse players to a thrift store. Scott Michaud, a 19-year-old sophomore goalie and biomedical sciences major from Springboro, Ohio, and 20-year-old Noah Snyder, a sophomore attackman and business student from Irving, New York, were pronounced dead at the scene.

A witness told police that she helped Brunner out of her pickup truck and noticed Brunner smelled of alcohol and kept trying to put gum in her mouth. Police also found an open beer can in her truck, according to the criminal complaint.

Brunner’s blood, which was drawn about two hours after the crash, had a blood alcohol content of 0.133, which exceeds the state’s legal limit to drive of 0.08.

An analysis of the crash recorder in Brunner’s truck found that she had been stopped for about three seconds before she pulled into the intersection with the accelerator depressed almost all the way to the floor, according to the complaint. She was traveling just under 12 mph (19 kph) when she struck the SUV, and she never braked.

Brunner was convicted of operating while intoxicated in November 2003, the complaint says.

Online court records indicated Brunner was in custody in the Milwaukee County Jail on Wednesday. Records did not list an attorney for her.

Michaud and Snyder were named to the Big East’s all-academic team last year for maintaining grade-point averages of at least 3.0. Snyder played in 13 of Marquette’s 14 games last season, making three starts in the midfield and collecting nine goals and seven assists.