A Wisconsin woman, Mary Jane Terry, 50, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the 2023 death of her husband, Donald Britten Jr., whom she drunkenly ran over and dragged nearly 48 feet under her pickup truck.
On October 19, 2023, Terry struck Britten while intoxicated, with a blood-alcohol level of 0.298 — more than four times the legal limit. After backing into him with her truck, she ran over his body and continued driving, dragging him along the pavement. A neighbor described the noise as a “prolonged thud” followed by a “doo doo, doo doo” sound — likened to a vehicle driving over a speed bump.
Terry was initially charged with first-degree intentional homicide but later pleaded guilty to homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle in January 2025.
During sentencing, prosecutor Alexander Seifert emphasized the severity of Britten’s injuries and demonstrated the dragging distance in the courtroom. He starkly described the damage caused by the truck and the pavement, comparing it to dragging a finger across a cheese grater with body weight, “not the weight of a truck.”
Though Terry had no prior criminal record, Seifert argued she posed a danger to the community and sought the maximum penalty: 15 years in prison and 10 years probation.
Terry’s defense attorneys, Kelli Sue Thompson and Albert Moustakis, cited her long struggle with alcoholism, which worsened after her son’s death in a car accident. They claimed both she and Britten were heavily intoxicated that night and that Terry had no memory of the incident, though she accepted full responsibility.
Terry did not speak during the hearing, but Thompson read her written statement aloud:
“I would have never intentionally hurt Donnie. He was the love of my life.”
Judge Michael Schiek ultimately rejected intoxication as a valid defense, stating:
“This would never have happened if you hadn’t been intoxicated … but it did, and you were.”
He sentenced Terry to 10 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision, ordering no early release via treatment programs before serving at least eight years. Restitution was also mandated.
The case underscores the devastating consequences of extreme intoxication and domestic violence, even in the absence of prior criminal behavior.
