Wrong-way driver gets 25 years for killing Twin Cities guitarist in head-on crash

A Minnesota woman received a 25-year term Friday for being extremely drunk while driving on the wrong side of the interstate near Hudson, Wis., and killing a Twin Cities heavy metal guitarist in a head-on crash.

Amber Lea Pospisil, 32, of Alexandria, was sentenced in St. Croix County District Court after pleading guilty to homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle in connection with the crash about 12:30 a.m. Oct. 30 on Interstate 94, roughly 4 miles east of the Minnesota border.

With credit for the 8½ months in jail since her arrest, Pospisil is expected to serve about 14¼ years in prison and the remaining 10 years on extended supervision upon her release.

District Attorney Karl Anderson said Judge Scott Needham's sentence prevents Pospisil from earning time for early release through substance abuse treatment or any other program for inmates.

The driver who died was Mark D. Filbrandt, 54, of Robbinsdale. Filbrandt, a guitarist with the death metal band Gorrified, was driving back from performing at a show that weekend in Menomonie, Wis., the group posted on its Facebook page.

Greg Filbrandt wrote on Facebook soon after the crash that took his brother's life, "He had been clean [from substance abuse] for over three years. He was living his dream playing guitar in Gorrified."

At the time of the collision, Pospisil was on probation stemming from a crash that injured two people in another vehicle when she hit them from behind on Jan. 13, 2021, near Alexandria in Brandon, Minn. Her blood alcohol content after that crash was measured by law enforcement at 0.296%, more than 3½ times the legal limit in Minnesota.

Pospisil pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular operation, a gross misdemeanor. Douglas County District Judge Timothy Churchwell set aside a one-year jail sentence and put her on unsupervised probation for three years.

In the October crash, according to the Wisconsin State Patrol and the criminal complaint:

Pospisil was driving east in the westbound lanes of I-94 when she hit Filbrandt's SUV as he drove toward Minnesota.

"The trooper observed obvious signs of impairment" in Pospisil, a statement from the patrol read. "Standardized field sobriety tests showed [Pospisil] was operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated."

Pospisil told a state trooper that she had been at a wedding in Blair, Wis. An empty vodka bottle was on the front passenger seat. She said she was drinking from the bottle up until the time of the crash.

A preliminary breath test administered by the trooper measured her blood alcohol content at 0.218%, more than 2½ times the legal limit in Wisconsin. She said she struggles with alcohol addiction and "did not remember going the wrong way on the interstate." She also said she had taken an antidepressant prescription drug.