Drunk driver who killed Microsoft HoloLens developer sent to prison for 10 years

Thirty-year-old Michael Ey was a rising star at Microsoft, working to perfect the company's augmented reality tool, HoloLens, when he was killed by a drunk driver on Feb. 28, 2015.

On Friday, 22-year-old Robert Malsch was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide-DUI, felony hit-and-run, and reckless driving in May.
               
Ey was heading to the Eastside home he and his girlfriend had just purchased the night he was killed.

Ey’s 2010 Honda Fit was stopped at a stoplight at the end of Highway 520, on Avondale Road NE and NE Union Hill Road in Redmond, when it was struck by a 2008 Volkswagen Rabbit driven by the then 21-year-old Malsch.

Investigators said Malsch was traveling 112 miles per hour when he slammed into Ey’s vehicle, killing him instantly.

Malsch's blood alcohol level at the time was 0.26 -- three times the legal limit.
               
During Malsch's sentencing hearing in King County Superior Court, Ey's girlfriend spoke about her loss.

“This house that we had just got, that was supposed to be ours, is left feeling so large and so empty because I can’t fill it myself,” Kelley Piering told Judge Mary Roberts.

"Mike was stolen from this world.  The future we had planned is gone.  The children we wanted will never exist."

 Malsch's criminal defense attorney, Colleen Hartl, said part of the blame for the fatal crash rested in the hands of the bartenders who overserved her client that night. 

Hartl said Malsch plans to educate young people, especially, on the dangers of drinking and driving when he's released from custody.

However, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Knightlinger blamed Malsch alone for his actions, and for his multiple attempts to escape responsibility. 

Knightlinger told the court that immediately after the crash, Malsch tried to start his damaged car and get away, then ran and hid before being tracked by K-9s. 

The defendant also fled a courtroom while out of custody on bail, dyed his hair and lied to police officers about his identity; -- reasons Judge Roberts gave for why she agreed to the state's request for a sentence at the high end of the standard scale of 125 months in prison.

Before being sentenced to more than 10 years behind bars, Malsch told Ey's family and friends, "I'm really sorry for my actions."

His grandmother, Marian Malsch, said, "I know no judgment would seem anywhere near adequate to make up for the loss of a beloved and talented young man."

Cox Media Group