TRAVERSE CITY — Sam DeKuiper was a 2019 graduate from Traverse City West Senior High School. In his time there, he was a star athlete on both the football and baseball teams.
Nicholas Schram from Lapeer County was sentenced Friday to between two and five years in prison for hitting and killing DeKuiper.
The crash happened last May in Grand Traverse County when Schram crossed the center line and hit DeKuiper head on.
Inside the truck Schram was driving, were five other people who were also hurt.
Schram was sentenced to a minimum of two years for both counts of reckless driving causing injury.
Two rooms at the Grand Traverse County Courthouse were filled with DeKuiper’s friends and family, five of whom delivered heart-wrenching impact statements that at times pleaded with the judge for the harshest sentence possible.
One of those statements came from DeKuiper’s mother, Brenda DeKuiper, “Sam’s mangled and burned body is in this vehicle. You tell me where my son is in this vehicle.
This is what happened to my son. You can see how charred and burned my son’s vehicle is. You can only imagine what it did to his body.”
Another hearing will take place within 60 days to set restitution.