FLINT – Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said the man who pleaded guilty to all charges in the May 2023 drunk driving wrong-way crash on I-75 that killed two people has been sentenced to prison.
Richard Calvin Fields, 44 of Flint Township, was sentenced Feb. 12 to 30-90 years in prison for the crash that killed 24-year-old Lauren Shoens of Flushing and 31-year-old Richard Pepitone of Swartz Creek.
According to the police investigation, at approximately 10:35 p.m. on May 27, 2023, police were dispatched to northbound I-75, just south of Beecher Road in Flint Township for reports of a vehicle that was traveling the wrong way southbound that had crashed into another vehicle that was heading northbound.
The investigation revealed that Fields was driving a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck southbound when he crashed into a Buick sedan traveling northbound. Pepitone was the front seat passenger and Shoens was a backseat passenger in the sedan along with a dog that also died in the crash.
The driver of the sedan survived the crash.
In addition to driving in the wrong direction on I-75, toxicology reports indicate Fields was driving with a blood alcohol content of .343 which is more than four times the legal limit.
“This was such a sad and tragic case,” said Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton after the
sentence was handed down.
Leyton added: “I had previously met with the mother of the young lady who was killed and the grief she was going through was something that I just simply cannot imagine and my heart breaks for her and her husband and their family.”
“While it is so terribly unfair that lives were lost at the hands of a drunk driver and we cannot bring back Lauren and Richard, I am thankful we were able to see this case through to legal justice
under the law,” Leyton said.
Fields stands convicted on all eight felony counts Prosecutor Leyton brought against him including two counts each of second degree murder, operating while intoxicated causing death, and operating while license suspended causing death and one count each of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury and operating while license suspended causing serious injury.
