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Grandfather sentenced in death of 8-year-old he let drive him home

Meers-photo Buchanan Co.

TROY, Kan. (AP) — A Missouri man whose 8-year-old granddaughter died in a car wreck when he let her drive him home from church has been sentenced to one year of probation.

Dennis Meers, of St. Joseph, was sentenced Monday after pleading no contest in December to child endangerment.

Investigators say Meers’ granddaughter, Cadence Orcutt, of Troy, Kansas, died in November 2015 when the car she was driving went down an embankment and overturned in Doniphan County, Kansas.

Meers will serve 11 months in prison if he fails his probation.

Meers previously was sentenced to two years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for felony driving on a revoked license. In 1996 and 2001, Meers was convicted in Missouri of being a persistent offender for driving while intoxicated.

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