Two Kossuth County men have been sentenced for their part in the New Year’s Eve death of Andrew Preston. 18-year-old Duane Pederson and 19-year-old Nicholas Simmons appeared before Judge Joseph Straub in Algona, both charged after Preston’s body was found at the end of a long farm lane on New Year’s Day. The state alleged the defendants were at a party before they ran over Preston and killed him. Simmons pleaded guilty and the judge ordered a ten-year prison sentence for the charge of reckless homicide and a year for leaving the scene. Pederson, found guilty in a jury trial back in September, will serve ten years for vehicular homicide by reckless driving, two years for leaving the scene and those terms will run one after another. Both men were ordered to pay 150-thousand dollars to Preston’s family.
