A Minnesota man is going to prison after admitting he caused a fatal car accident in Waterloo. Twenty-three-year-old Damir Mekic was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday after reaching a plea agreement with Black Hawk County prosecutors. Mekic pleaded guilty to charges of vehicular homicide and failure to appear for his January 2004 trial. Mekic, a Bosnian citizen living in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, admitted to driving drunk in Waterloo in April 2003, when his car went through a stop light and slammed into another car, which was filled with teenagers from North Tama High School. The teens were on their way to a restaurant on their prom night. The crash killed 18-year-old Keely Lyons of Traer. Mekic fled to Bosnia after the crash and eluded authorities for more than a year. He was eventually captured trying to cross the Bosnian-Serbian border, and was brought to the United States. As part of the plea agreement, the judge revoked Mekic’s driver’s license for six years and also ordered him to 150-thousand dollars to Lyons’ estate. According to court record, Mekic had a prior conviction for drunken driving in Minnesota in 2002.
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