A Clark man pleaded guilty Wednesday to involuntary manslaughter and assault over a crash last fall that killed a Harrisburg teacher.
On Sept. 28, Brandon Brill, 27, crossed the center line while driving on Route F and hit a bus driven by Brian Simpson that was carrying five high school and middle school girls to a track meet. Both vehicles overturned, and the bus caught fire.
Simpson, a baseball coach and history teacher with the Harrisburg R-VIII school district was pronounced dead at the scene, and the girls were taken to University Hospital with injuries.
At the 13th Circuit Court hearing, Brill said he had worked over 100 hours in the weeks before the crash and was driving home from a 16-hour shift at Heritage Hall, a nursing home in Centralia.
Brill had been charged with second-degree murder in Simpson’s death before pleading to the lesser charges of first-degree involuntary manslaughter and second-degree assault.
Because he is deemed a prior and persistent offender, Brill could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction and 10 years for assault. His previous convictions include felony driving without a license in Audrain County.
Assistant prosecuting attorney Roger Johnson asked that Circuit Judge Jeff Harris sentence Brill to 15 years for manslaughter and another seven for assault, to be served consecutively.
No sentencing date has been set.