A man who killed two people in a car crash in Folsom earlier this year while he was driving under the influence of nitrous oxide pleaded no contest today in Sacramento Superior Court.
Michael Dean Sharp, 22, is likely to be sentenced to nine years and eight months in state prison as a result of the plea he entered in front of Judge Geoffrey A. Goodman.
The judge scheduled Sharp's sentencing for Aug. 31.
According to testimony at Sharp's preliminary hearing, he purchased 50 canisters of nitrous oxide under the "Whip-It" brand name at a Folsom smoke shop the night of the Jan. 7. collision.
After cracking a canister and filling a balloon with the gas, he inhaled the ingredient and set out southbound on Folsom Boulevard reaching speeds of 60 miles per hour, Deputy District Attorney Caroline Park said in court today.
Sharp's Ford Explorer crossed a double-yellow line, narrowly missed two other vehicles and then crashed into a Saturn being driven by Christopher Stephen Ohlander Martell, 37. The impact killed Martell, 37, and his brother, Robert Todd Ohlander, 32, who was sitting in the passenger seat.
A passenger in the rear seat of the Saturn, Bronson Chapman, was seriously injured.
In his plea today, Sharp admitted to two counts of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and a third count of felony driving under the influence resulting in great bodily injury.
Outside court, Park said the nine-year, eight-month term would have been the likely sentence if the case had gone to trial and Sharp had been convicted.
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