One of the saddest cases I’ve covered recently involved the death of 24-year-old Brian Beaver, a tourist from Washington state who was killed by a drunken driver as he walked along a Missoula sidewalk.
The man convicted in that case, Brian Holm [in Kurt Wilson photo}, said he was driving that night because his wife, Nancy – with whom he’d been drinking that evening at a Lolo bar – was too intoxicated to drive.
Shortly before 1:30 a.m. yesterday, Missoula police stopped Nancy Holm, who allegedly was driving without headlights, and wrote her a ticket for drunken driving.
She refused a breath test after being stopped at the intersection of Third and Prince streets, according to the ticket.
Nancy Holm, 52, pleaded guilty in Missoula Municipal Court Monday morning to a misdemeanor drunken driving charge, and to driving without headlights. … In the new incident, Nancy Holm was sentenced to 30 days in the Missoula County Detention Facility with all but 24 hours – which she has already served – suspended. She paid a total of $1,190 in fines and court costs.
Her husband, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison with 15 suspended after being convicted of vehicular homicide under the influence, remains free while pursuing an appeal.
Gwen Florio