The hit-and-run driver who struck a group of people, killing three of them, in Newton Township last summer has pled no contest to three counts of negligent homicide and pled guilty to three counts of failure to stop at the scene of an accident when at fault, resulting in death, before 11th Circuit Court Judge William Carmody Friday, February 5.

Dustan Bowen, 28, of Sanford, struck the group of pedestrians with his SUV July 25 on South Gould City Road. Three of those walking on the road died as a result of their injuries, Jonel Hoogterp, 26, Julie Hatch, 31, both of Durham, North Carolina, and Sara Dobbrastine, 24, of Kent City.

Mr. Bowen now faces sentencing in front of the court at 10:30 a.m. Friday, March 19.

The plea of no contest, technically neither a guilty nor a non-guilty plea, carries with it identical sentencing standards as a plea of guilty, according to Mackinac County Prosecutor Fred Feleppa.

The no contest plea allows the judge to sentence as if a guilty plea has been entered, Mr. Feleppa said, but allows the defendant not to be required to say certain things that could be used in a civil lawsuit.

Mr. Feleppa said Mr. Bowen could face up to 22.5 years in prison for all six counts.

All other charges that Mr. Bowen did not make a plea on Friday were dropped, Mr. Feleppa said, as a result of an agreement between the prosecution and the defense. Mr. Bowen was originally charged with 16 counts, including counts of second degree homicide - murder; counts of homicide - manslaughter with a motor vehicle; counts of operating while intoxicated, causing death; counts of failure to stop at the scene of an accident, when at fault, resulting in death; and counts of killing/torturing animals. Two dogs died in the accident.

"Some of those counts overlapped with other charges; some were lesser charges," Mr. Feleppa said. "Some of them posed their own difficulties in getting a conviction."

Mr. Bowen does have the option, after sentencing, to pursue an appeal to the court's decision, although Mr. Feleppa said this ability is severely limited, since Mr. Bowen entered guilty and no contest pleas to the charges.

"On this one, it's practically appeal-proof," he said. With a plea of not guilty, Mr. Feleppa said, the appeal process would automatically start after sentencing, but in this case, Mr. Bowen would need to get special permission for an appeal through the Court of Appeals.

Mr. Bowen is lodged in the Mackinac County Jail in St. Ignace awaiting sentencing.