Bucks County man sentenced to decades in prison for high-speed DUI crash that killed a Connecticut couple

A serial drunk driver was sentenced to decades in state prison this week, nearly a year after he caused a fatal crash in Bristol Township while high on meth, speeding, and driving on a suspended license.

John Wadlinger, 32, will spend 26 to 56 years in prison for the deaths of Richard and Rebecca Whiddon, a Connecticut couple who were visiting Bucks County for a friend’s wedding.

Richard Whiddon, 33, and Rebecca Whiddon, 37, were high school sweethearts, and both worked in science: Richard Whiddon programmed biomedical machinery used in hospitals, and Rebecca Whiddon was an inorganic chemist. The crash that took their lives also critically injured two others in the car.

Wadlinger, of Croydon, who had three previous DUI convictions, pleaded guilty in November to homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and related crimes. At the time of the crash, Wadlinger’s license was suspended because of his previous convictions.

The sentence handed down by Bucks County Court Judge Stephen Fritsch included a 14-year mandatory minimum for two counts of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence.

Deputy District Attorney Christine Sessane said the lengthy prison term was appropriate and brought a measure of justice.

“His time for rehabilitation has passed,” Sessane said. “This instance is his most egregious criminal offense in his lifetime, and it’s clearly wrought the most devastation. I think the community is better protected and better served with him behind bars for a substantial period of time.”

Wadlinger’s attorney, Riley Downs, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Prosecutors described the scene of the high-speed collision that killed the couple as a “battlefield,” the traumatic memories of which still haunt its two survivors.

“One moment, we are all happily laughing on our way to see our friends, and in the next, jolted into an unconceivable nightmare,” Chandra Lampreich, who was in the car with the couple at the time of the crash, testified during the hearing. “The crash had caused such carnage.”

The Whiddons were visiting Bucks County for a friend’s wedding on Feb. 23 when a Ford Explorer driven by Wadlinger slammed into the Nissan Sentra they were riding in as it made a left turn. Investigators said Wadlinger was driving 73 m.p.h. at the time, more than double the posted speed limit on the stretch of Veterans Highway where the collision occurred.

The impact of the collision was so severe that it sheared away nearly the entire passenger side of the Sentra. Its trunk was torn off and thrown 50 feet into a nearby parking lot.

After the crash, Wadlinger stole a dump truck parked in the backyard of a nearby home and fled. He crashed that vehicle not long after and was taken into custody.

A video played in court during Wadlinger’s preliminary hearing last year showed him getting out of the SUV immediately after the crash and sprinting away. Prosecutors said he never stopped to check on the people he left behind.

Friends of the Whiddons gathered in a cramped Bucks County courtroom Monday for Wadlinger’s sentencing. More than 60 statements from people who knew and loved the couple had been submitted to the court, prosecutors said, a testament to how deeply they will be missed.

Richard Whiddon, who bears the same name as his son, asked the judge to impose the harshest possible sentence, citing what he described as Wadlinger’s lack of remorse.

“You just don’t lose someone once; you lose them over and over again, sometimes many times a day,” Whiddon said. “You lose them every time you open your eyes to a new morning. It hits you like a bolt of lightning that rips into your heart that they are gone forever.

“This is our new life sentence given to us by the defendant.”