Bentonville Man Gets 10 Years For Fatal DWI Crash

BENTONVILLE (KFSM) — A Bentonville man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing another driver while driving drunk last summer.

William Ray Schmidt, 36, pleaded guilty last week in Benton County Circuit Court to negligent homicide and driving while intoxicated.

Schmidt also owes more than $1,300 in fines and court costs. He’ll serve a five-year suspended sentence after he’s released from the state Department of Correction.

Rogers police arrested Schmidt in June 2018 after he ran a red light and “t-boned” a pickup along West Walnut Street, according to an arrest report.

Jerry Jackson, 44, the driver of the pickup, later died at the hospital from his injuries.

Schmidt told police he’d had “four beers” and had come from an event at the City Pump, according to the report.

Schmidt failed a field sobriety test and was arrested at the crash scene, police said.

He was later taken to the police station, where he took a breath analyzer test that registered a blood-alcohol content of .19 — more than twice the legal limit of .08, police said.