An east-central Minnesota man with a drunken-driving conviction on his record has been sentenced to a nearly eight-year term for fatally hitting a woman just southeast of Lake Mille Lacs while extremely intoxicated. He then fled as her body and parts of his car were left on the side of the road.

William P. Sayers Jr., 34, of Isle, was sentenced in Mille Lacs County District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to running over and killing 23-year-old Tanya J. Skinaway on March 2, 2016, along Chiminising Drive near Isle.

With credit for the eight months he's been in jail since his arrest for criminal vehicular homicide, Sayers will serve roughly 4¾ years in prison and the balance of his term on supervised release.

Sayers could have received up to a 10-year term for killing Skinaway, whose survivors include a daughter and a son.

On the night Skinaway was struck, officers found the Isle woman's body on the side of the road as well as pieces of Sayers' car and its front license plate.

A sheriff's deputy soon located the car at a residence a half-mile away, with flesh on the left-front quarter panel and Sayers slumped over in the car. He told the deputy that he had been with Skinaway earlier that night.

Tanya J. Skinaway

The deputy smelled a strong odor of alcohol coming from Sayers. A preliminary test measured his blood alcohol content at .224 percent, nearly three times the legal limit for driving.

Sayers' criminal history in Minnesota includes a drunken-driving conviction from 2012.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482