3 Girl Scouts, Mom Killed in Hit-and-Run While Cleaning Litter on Roadside, Driver Gets 54 Years

A Wisconsin man was sentenced Wednesday to 54 years in prison for a hit-and-run crash that killed four people, including three Girl Scouts picking up trash along the roadside.

"I feel there is no proper way to apologize for this," 23-year-old Colten Treu said in a 16-minute video played at his sentencing, reports the Leader-Telegram. "No words will describe how I feel."

"I feel sick when I think about it," he said on the video.

Prosecutors said Treu was behind the wheel of his Ford F-150 pickup and huffing aerosol fumes with a friend in the passenger seat while driving on a highway in Chippewa County on Nov. 3, 2018.

After huffing, the passenger told police Treu appeared to be "out of it," according to a criminal complaint obtained by Eau Claire TV station WEAU. The pair began to fight after the passenger attempted to gain control of the wheel. That's when Treu's pickup truck crossed a highway lane and plowed into a ditch, where a group of fourth-grade Girl Scouts were cleaning up the roadside.

Killed were 9-year-old Jayna Kelley, 10-year-old Autumn Helgeson, 10-year-old Haylee Hickle, and Haylee's mother, Sara Jo Schneider.

A fourth girl was critically injured but survived.

Authorities said Treu fled the scene and went home, where he had someone else park the truck in a garage. He then went to a party. When a sheriff's deputy followed a fluid trail to the garage, authorities found the parked vehicle.

Treu pleaded no contest to four counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and one count of hit and run involving great bodily harm, WEAU, WQOW and KARE 11 report.

Treu's defense attorney, Carly Sebion, told Judge James Isaacson ahead of sentencing, "We're asking the court to remember that Colten Treu isn't the sum of just those bad mistakes on that one day," reports WEAU.

Treu also addressed the court. "I screwed up, bad. And no matter what I say or do, you guys are never going to know how sorry I really am," he said, according to WCCO.

"Mr. Treu, it's hard to label what happened here," said the judge, reports WEAU. "You know it's been called a tragedy; that doesn't seem to be enough. It's been called a horrendous tragedy, senseless, thoughtless. There's more adjectives - avoidable is one that comes to mind. Still it's not enough."

The prosecutor, Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell, said, "I think justice was served," according to the outlet. "Obviously I would have preferred a more lengthy sentence regarding the recommendations that the state was making but it's ultimately up to the judge to determine what is appropriate and proper. But I think justice was served, though, and that he was held accountable for what he did on November 3, 2018."