Jesse Bergeron sentenced to nine months in prison for fatal crash

MADISON (WITI) -- Jesse Bergeron of Deerfield was sentenced to nine months in jail on Tuesday, August 27th, after the 35-year-old drove with a suspended license and caused a fatal crash in Sun Prairie.

Kim Sylvia

Bergeron failed to yield to a motorcycle as he turned onto Highway 19 in June of 2012, killing 47-year-old Kim Sylvia of Marshall and seriously injuring the motorcycle's driver.

In a statement to the court on Tuesday, Bergeron apologized to the Sylvia family and expressed remorse, telling the judge he would better serve the community if he was allowed to avoid prison and continue parenting his children.

"All the time accidents happen and there is fatalities and people are not subject to criminal penalties. So I think that if there had never been any driving behavior before then it might have been less," Defense Attorney William Ginsberg said.

Bergeron was ordered to report to jail in September, and declined comment after the sentencing.