(AP) - A drunken driver who sped through a red light at about 90 mph before crashing into a car and killing an elderly couple on the Pyramid Highway in Sparks has been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.
Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks said in a statement Tuesday that 35-year-old Mario Cortez of Sparks will have to serve a minimum of 16 years before he's eligible for parole.
Cortez was sentenced March 2. He pleaded guilty last year to two counts of DUI resulting in death in the April 2016 crash near the Los Altos Parkway.
Prosecutors say Cortez had five times the legal limit of marijuana and more than twice the alcohol limit in his blood when he rammed into the back of a car, killing Mario and Erlinda Guasing. Both were in their 70s.
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