A Porter County Superior Court judge sentenced an East Chicago resident to 12 years in prison on Friday after he plead guilty in the accidental death of a construction worker between the Porter/Burns Harbor and Chesterton exits of Interstate 80/94.

Judge William Alexa on Friday ruled Ricardo F. Bustos, 22, guilty in the case of striking and killing 49 year-old Roger Sadler of Michigan City at 3:30 a.m. on April 30, 2010 while driving his red 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier westbound through a work zone near mile marker 23.1.

Sadler was filling in cracks between the center and left lanes when he was struck. He died three days later at Loyola Hospital in Chicago. Bustos, said he thought he had hit a construction barrel. He fled the scene and was apprehended when police noticed his car at his East Chicago residence later that morning.

Bustos told police at his arrest that he had been drinking with a friend and admitted he “messed up and should have turned myself in,” police reports said.

Bustos has already served two years in the Porter County Jail since the incident and held a previous operating while intoxicated charge in Lake County from April 2009. He was formally sentenced last week on a Class B felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious bodily injury or death while operating while intoxicated, which he plead guilty to this January.

The sentence order indicates Bustos will be placed in the Westville prison therapeutic community.

Bustos has asked Sadler’s family for forgiveness and vowed never to consume alcohol again.

Alexa also ordered Bustos to participate in substance abuse programs during his sentence and carry a restrictive driver’s license once he is released.

Posted 3/27/2012