Driver handed 6 years in prison for crash that killed passenger on I-469

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – A woman was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to charges levied against her in a 2022 crash that killed her passenger.

Thursday, a judge in Allen Superior Court sentenced 41-year-old Erin Carr to 12 years with six of those years suspended.

The Michigan woman pleaded guilty in September to criminal recklessness and operating a vehicle with a controlled substance or its metabolite in her body causing death.

After 1 a.m. on July 18, 2022, Carr was driving an SUV on Interstate 469 and crashed into a parked semi near the Tillman Road interchange.

John Thomas Xirafakis Jr., 36, was in the passenger seat of the SUV and was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to Allen Superior Court documents, Carr initially told police at the scene of the crash that she wasn’t the one behind the wheel. But investigators found evidence that it was her, not Xirafakis, who was driving when the car crashed and flipped on the highway.

Carr was charged in December 2023 and arrested in April of this year.

After Carr serves time in prison, she’ll be on probation for four years, according to Thursday’s sentencing. Two more years after that will be served on non-reporting probation on the condition that Carr does not consume drugs or alcohol and doesn’t commit any other crimes.

Carr was also ordered to pay $2,295 to the family of Xirafakis.

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