Woman changes plea in drunken-driving crash that killed local guitarist
Mugshot for Amber Pospisil Credit: St. Croix County Sheriff's Office
An Alexandria woman will be sentenced for her role in a drunken-driving crash last year in Wisconsin that killed a musician in a Twin Cities metal band.
Court records show 31-year-old Amber Lea Pospisil pleaded no contest to one count of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle Thursday in St. Croix County Court. The court found her guilty, and prosecutors agreed to drop three other charges in the case.
Pospisil’s sentencing is scheduled for July 14. She faces a maximum of 40 years in prison.
As previously reported, on the morning of Oct. 30, Pospisil was driving on Interstate 94 near Hudson when her car drifted into oncoming traffic and struck a vehicle heading in the opposite direction. The driver in the other vehicle, 54-year-old Mark Filbrandt of Robbinsdale, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A Wisconsin State Patrol trooper at the scene noticed Pospisil had slurred speech and smelled of alcohol, according to a criminal complaint. She admitted to drinking before driving and was taken into custody.
Filbrandt, a guitarist with the metal band Gorrified, was heading home from a show in Menomonie. In an interview with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS last fall, his bandmate described him as “an exceptional guitar player and an exceptional human being.”
Pospisil has a history of drunken driving: She pleaded guilty to a DWI charge in 2021 after she got into a crash in Douglas County while she had a blood-alcohol content of 0.296.