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Friday, August 19, 2011

PTSD on trail:Iraq, Marine veteran convicted of 3 drunk driving deaths

Madison man convicted in 3 drunk driving deaths on interstate
ED TRELEVEN

A Madison man was convicted Thursday of the drunken driving homicide deaths of three people whose disabled car he crashed into on an interstate highway shoulder in October.

Bradley R. Erickson, 32, pleaded no contest to three counts of homicide by drunken driving and one count of causing injury while driving drunk, all for an Oct. 7 crash in the town of Burke that killed Marcus Johnson, 19, of Milwaukee; Elysia Rapp, 20, of Racine; and Wilfredo Ugarte, 23, of Puerto Rico.

Dane County Circuit Judge Julie Genovese revoked Erickson’s $30,000 bail and ordered him jailed until he is sentenced in about two months.

Erickson’s lawyer, John Hyland, said Erickson has performed well on bail monitoring and has been getting treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder for his 2004 combat service with the Marines in Iraq.

In a memorandum to the court, Hyland wrote that one of Erickson’s PTSD symptoms is hyper-vigilance, an inability to cope with different surroundings without feeling a sense of danger.

“Brad experienced this whenever he stayed in unfamiliar spaces such as hotel rooms,” Hyland wrote.

“It was the reason he was driving home the night of the crash. He was compelled to go to a place where he felt safe.”

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