A St. Cloud man was sentenced Thursday in connection to a fatal wrong-way crash in Waite Park last July.

 

According to court records, Charlie Ray Barnett was sentenced to two years in prison. 

 

Barnett, 28, entered a Norgaard plea in October. The plea is entered in situations where a defendant acknowledges there is enough evidence for a jury to convict them, but is unable to recall facts due to intoxication or amnesia.

 

Officers responded July 10 to a two-vehicle crash at Division Street and Second Avenue South where Richard Tomlinson, 61, and Roger Nelson, 77, were both killed in the crash. Nelson was from Clearwater and he was riding in his classic 1970 Chevrolet El Camino that he was planning to sell to Tomlinson of Grantsburg, WI.

 

Barnett was witnessed to be speeding before his vehicle crossed the median and struck the El Camino.

 

According to the complaint, officers found an aerosol bottle of dusting cleaner inside Barnett's vehicle. Officers later learned that Barnett had a history of huffing dusting cleaner.

 

After being transported to the hospital, Barnett said he had a panic attack and did not remember the crash.

 

Surveillance video from Best Buy showed a car matching the one Barnett drove pulling into Best Buy shortly before 7:10 p.m., and a man matching Barnett's description bought two cans of dusting cleaner.