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Accused drunk driver faces homicide charge
Homicide by drunk driving and related charges were filed Tuesday against a 25-year-old Marshall man who was allegedly driving drunk before noon when his pickup truck cross the center line on County TT and struck and killed another driver.
Joseph R. O'Malley is charged with running head-on in his red Nissan pickup truck into a black GMC driven by Joseph R. Ponti, 52, also of Marshall. Ponti was killed in the crash and O'Malley suffered serious injuries and was flown by MedFlight helicopter to University Hospital in Madison for treatment.
O'Malley is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to face the homicide charge as well as a fourth time drunk driving charge, a third time operating after revocation charge, a charge of causing death while operating while revoked, and misdemeanor bail jumping. O'Malley currently has a fourth time drunk driving charge pending for an arrest last fall and is scheduled for a status conference on that charge Tuesday afternoon.
According to the criminal complaint in the homicide case O'Malley was headed west on Highway TT in his girlfriend's pickup and following two other vehicles.
The driver of one of those cars told officers that he was going about 60 miles per hour when O'Malley pulled out and passed him and a van in front of him. That driver said about 30 seconds later he came upon the accident involving O'Malley and Ponti, and called the emergency communication center. That put the accident at about 11:34 a.m.
Ponti was pronounced dead at the scene. Although O'Malley was seriously injured in the wreck, he admitted to Dane County Sheriff's Deputy James Kelley that he had been drinking that morning and Kelley later found two cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the Nissan pickup.
An autopsy showed Ponti died from blunt force trauma from the crash and had lacerations to both the heart and liver.
Blood was taken from O'Malley and a test at the State Crime Lab showed a blood alcohol content of .211, well above the legal limit for any driver and substantially above the restrictions placed on O'Malley for his previous convictions. Court records show O'Malley was convicted of drunk driving in March of 2002, August of 2003 and November of 2005, and currently has a drunk driving charge pending from last October.
If convicted of all the charges he would face a maximum sentence of more than 45 years of prison and extended supervision time.
