GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — A woman convicted for her role in a deadly 2024 Highway 172 crash was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison.
Laney Peters, 21, appeared in Brown County court, where Circuit Court Judge Thomas Walsh ordered her to serve a total of 12 years in prison followed by 12 years of extended supervision.
“How do you translate this case into a term of years? It’s really an unsatisfying concept and problem," Walsh said. "As difficult as it is, I need to pass a sentence in this case that seems just to the victims, to the community and to Ms. Peters.”
Before passing his sentence, Walsh said he took into account Peters' lack of criminal history and strong character witnesses. Peters was 19 years old at the time of the crash.
He also spoke of her need for drug, alcohol and mental health support and the gravity of her actions.
“There needs to be a punishment when things like this happen so everybody else in the community can see that this is something our community does not want," he said.
Peters was convicted in late June on two counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and one count of injury by intoxicated use of a vehicle as part of a plea agreement.
Peters was driving intoxicated on State Highway 172 on June 24, 2024, when she lost control of the vehicle, struck a tree and flipped the car.
The legal complaint states a blood draw taken about six hours after the crash showed Peters had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.064 g/100 mL. Prosecutors argued her BAC would have exceeded the legal limit of 0.08 g/100 mL at the time of the crash based on the commonly accepted dissipation rate of 0.015 g/100 mL per hour.
There were three passengers and a dog inside the vehicle at the time of the crash.
Two of the passengers — 19-year-old Mee-Mingwaa Phillips and 18-year-old Emma Daniels — were pronounced dead at the scene. The dog also died.
Daniels' 16-year-old sister was seriously injured, but she survived.
Peters pleaded no contest to the charges in June of this year.
”I don’t know where to begin, but I want to start by saying how extremely sorry I am," Peters said at the sentencing hearing. “I’m very remorseful, and I will carry this tragedy on my shoulders every day.... I want to take full responsibility and accountability for the tragedy I’ve caused on June 24. This has changed the way I live my life. I will be the change I wish to see, and live my life the way the Creator intended me to.”
Family members of Phillips and Daniels spoke at the hearing about their grief.
“The horrible decisions you made that night robbed her of everything she was- a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, a niece, a friend, and everything she would have been," Brooke Big John-Ramos– Daniels' mother– said at the hearing. “My world stopped turning the day she left. A piece of my whole being is missing, a part of my soul that I will never get back."
Emmy Mayo, Daniels' grandmother also spoke
"Everyone was screaming at you to slow down," she said. "You may physically have taken her from us, but you can never touch her powerful, loving spirit that lives in our hearts. God says to forgive, but there are things in this world that just can’t be forgiven, and you are one of them.”
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Phillips' grandmother asked Laney to use the situation as a catalyst for growth.
“I hope that she finds in her heart to change her ways. Stop drinking, stop drugging, and take care of your own kid," she said. "You can’t bring my baby back, but maybe you can change your ways and become a good person.”
In 2025, 167 people died in drug or alcohol impaired driving crashes across the state, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
“I think all of us owe it to our community to make sure that others now about situations like this, so that when you’re with someone on an evening, having a good time, and you see that perhaps they shouldn’t be driving, you tell them about this so that they know the tragic things that can happen," Walsh said.
