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Life sentence in DWI accident case hangs in the balance

Acting Seneca County Judge Rick Healy has scheduled a Nov. 19 hearing for the former Romulus man who killed two people in a 2015 accident.

If that man, Earl Wilson, is found to be a persistent felony offender at the hearing, the judge has indicated he will sentence him to a life term in prison.

Wilson, 45, pleaded guilty in September to vehicular homicide, manslaughter, driving while intoxicated and a host of other charges related to the Sept. 16, 2015, crash on Route 96A in Fayette that claimed the lives of Steve Lester of Manchester and Patty Perryman of Canandaigua.

Wilson, who was living in Romulus at the time, was behind the wheel of a pickup truck when he hit Lester, who was driving a motorcycle. Perryman was Lester’s passenger.

Wilson has pleaded guilty twice in the case. He did so in 2016 and was sentenced to 15 years to life by then-county Judge Dennis Bender.

Wilson tried to withdraw his plea, claiming his attorney at the time — Assistant Public Defender John Nabinger — didn’t get a toxicology report on Lester. Bender rejected Wilson’s request.

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