Man sentenced to 4 years for fatally hitting wife with SUV
Tony James McClelland (Crow Wing County Jail)
A Fort Ripley man will serve four years in prison for hitting and killing his wife with an SUV.
Tony James McClelland, 48, was sentenced in Crow Wing County on Friday. Court documents show he has credit for 18 days already served.
As previously reported, McClelland took a plea deal in February. He pleaded guilty to one count of criminal vehicular homicide in exchange for one count of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree manslaughter and a second count of criminal vehicular homicide to be dismissed.
McClelland was charged in connection with the death of his wife, 49-year-old Angela Marie McClelland, who had been found dead along a frontage road on the west side of Highway 371 in Fort Ripley Township, about 15 miles south of Brainerd, on the morning of June 25.
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Tony told police that they were driving home from a party when they got into an argument, so he dropped Angela off along Matte Road and drove home. He claimed he didn’t realize she didn’t make it home until the next morning.
According to a criminal complaint, investigators got a search warrant for the McClellands’ Ford Explorer and found blood and tissue in several places, as well as a single hair. The blood and hair were a DNA match to Angela.
Location data from the vehicle also showed that Tony drove south on Legend Lane early that morning, stopped around 100 yards south of Killian Road and then backed up to where Angela’s body was found and stopped. He then sped away from the scene, reaching speeds over 100 mph before going home.
When officers went back to Tony McClelland’s home, he explained that his wife had gotten mad at him for looking at another woman and was grabbing at the steering wheel. However, he claimed he was “pretty drunk” and told law enforcement, “I don’t remember much after that.”
However, people at the party said that while Angela looked intoxicated, Tony didn’t, which was why he was driving, according to court documents.
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