Driving 114 mph with a .334 BAC

Brian Nowicki, 49, of Grandville is now charged with two counts of second-degree murder after he allegedly was driving 114 mph with a blood alcohol content of .334 when he caused a multi-vehicle accident which killed two teenagers from Lakeview. Nowicki is pictured from the Montcalm County Jail at a previous court hearing. — Screenshot STANTON — Prosecutors have upgraded the charges against a Grandville man accused of causing a crash that killed two Lakeview teenagers, alleging he was driving 114 mph with a blood alcohol content of .334 when he slammed into their vehicle. Brian Scott Nowicki, 49, was originally charged with 10 crimes related to the crash, which occurred around 11 p.m. on June 18 on M-46 near Derby Road in Belvidere Township. On Thursday, Michigan State Police Trooper Jacob Agema appeared in Montcalm County District Court to swear to two new charges of second-degree murder against Nowicki, both felonies with possible life sentences. Agema said the toxicology report showed Nowicki had a blood alcohol content of .334 — more than four times the legal limit — while an accident reconstructionist report shows Nowicki was driving 114 mph at the time of the crash with no braking. Agema said these new facts show “willful and wanton disregard” by Nowicki, leading to the two new murder charges. He also mentioned Nowicki’s previous convictions, which can lead to increased penalties in this case. The multi-vehicle crash occurred when a westbound vehicle driven by Nowicki rear-ended a Chevrolet Cruze occupied by Latrese McFerrin and Mark Pettengill, each 17 years old from Lakeview. The force of the collision caused the Cruze to spin into the eastbound lanes of M-46. The Cruze was then struck by an eastbound Ford F-150 before being T-boned by an eastbound Chevrolet Traverse. The two eastbound vehicles were driven by a husband and wife from Saginaw who were traveling home in separate vehicles. McFerrin and Pettengill were pronounced dead from injuries sustained in the crash. They were the parents of a 5-month-old son. Melba Peterson of Saginaw, the driver of the Traverse, was transported to a local hospital for treatment. After the crash, Nowicki allegedly assaulted, resisted or obstructed Michigan State Police officers Noah Kellogg, Riley Radcliff and Steven Schutter. Nowicki was not present in court during testimony about the amended charges. He is also charged with two counts of operating while under the influence of liquor causing death; operating while intoxicated causing serious injury; two counts of operating while license revoked causing death; operating while license revoked causing serious injury; three counts of assaulting, resisting or obstructing a police officer; and having an open container of alcohol in the vehicle. Nowicki remains in the Montcalm County Jail on a $2 million bond. He briefly appeared in District Court on Wednesday, where he waived his preliminary examination without any offer from the prosecutor and was bound over to Montcalm County Circuit Court. Nowicki is a repeat drunken driver offender, including two convictions for operating while intoxicated in California in 2022 and 2025 and another one in Missouri in 2025, where a failure to appear charge is still pending, according to the Montcalm County Prosecutor’s Office. More recently, Nowicki pleaded guilty in April 2025 to operating while intoxicated second offense in Barry County, where a judge sentenced him to a year in jail to be suspended if Nowicki successfully completed the terms of probation; however, Nowicki violated his probation by testing positive for alcohol in September 2025. He pleaded guilty, then cut off his alcohol monitoring device and left the state without permission. This past January, a Barry County judge sentenced Nowicki to 175 days jail with credit for 73 days served for failure to appear for arraignment on charges of absconding probation, meaning he was released from that jail in May, shortly before June’s double fatal crash. The post Driving 114 mph with a .334 BAC first appeared on The Daily News .