Minnesota minister gets prison for drunken driving fatality

MINNEAPOLIS – A minister has been sentenced to four years in prison for driving drunk and killing a woman who was on her way to work as a Minneapolis 911 dispatcher.

Seventy-three-year-old Richard Shaka, a former college professor, was sentenced in Hennepin County District Court for a February 2018 crash that killed 30-year-old Jenna Bixby on a Brooklyn Park highway.

The Star Tribune reports that with time spent in jail, Shaka will serve the first 2? years in prison and the balance on supervised release.

Prosecutors say Shaka had a blood-alcohol content of 0.16% — twice the legal limit for driving in Minnesota — when he crossed into Bixby’s lane and struck her vehicle.

Shaka taught theology at North Central University in Minneapolis from 1996 until 2011.

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Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com