Twin Cities death metal guitarist returning from gig is killed in crash with wrong-way driver

An allegedly intoxicated woman driving the wrong way on the interstate near Hudson, Wis., killed a Twin Cities motorist in a head-on crash, according to charges filed Monday.

The collision occurred about 12:30 a.m. Sunday on Interstate Hwy. 94, roughly 4 miles east of the Minnesota border, the Wisconsin State Patrol said.

Amber Lea Pospisil, 31, of Alexandria, was charged Monday with homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and two counts of reckless driving. She remained jailed as of late Monday afternoon in lieu of $100,000 cash bond ahead of a Nov. 28 hearing. Pospisil's attorney was not immediately available to comment on her behalf.

This is the second time in less than two years that Pospisil, who court records show also has an address in Hudson, has been accused of causing a crash while under the influence of alcohol.

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

"We are very heartbroken to tell everyone the tragic news that our brother and guitarist Mark passed away," the band's notice read.

Greg Filbrandt also noted the crash on Facebook and added, "He had been clean for over 3 years. He was living his dream playing guitar in Gorrified."

According to the Wisconsin State Patrol and the criminal complaint:

Pospisil was driving her car 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 in the front passenger seat. She said she was drinking from the vodka 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 2 ¹⁄₂ times the legal limit for driving in Wisconsin. She said she struggles with alcohol addiction and "did not remember going the wrong way on the interstate." She also said she took an antidepressant prescription drug in recent hours.

Pospisil suffered minor injuries in the crash. She was taken to Hudson Hospital for testing of her blood for its alcohol content and then booked into jail. The patrol has yet to disclose her blood alcohol content test results.

At the time of Sunday's 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 the crash was measured by law enforcement at 0.296%, more than 3 ¹⁄₂ times the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.

She 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.