Mason City man sent to prison for driving van loaded with kids intoxicated that crashed, causing injuries

MASON CITY –  A Mason City man who was drunk while driving a van loaded with kids and then crashed the vehicle, causing injuries to the occupants, will be going to prison for his crime.

Deairreo Cryer, age 25, is currently in the Cerro Gordo County Jail awaiting transport to prison as a result of an investigation and his ultimate conviction connected to a motor vehicle crash that occurred in Mason City on May 2, 2019.  Cryer was operating a van that crashed into a ditch in the 1500 block of 12th Street NW, injuring all five occupants. Three of the victims were children between the ages of 7 and 3 years old.

Test results showed that Cryer had a blood alcohol level of .137 after the crash.

Cryer was charged with one count of child endangerment involving serious injury; a class C felony and two counts of child endangerment involving bodily injury; a class D felony, as well as felony serious injury by vehicle.  The latter charge was dismissed.  However, Cryer received a 10-year sentence for child endangerment – serious injury and two, 5-year sentences for child endangerment – bodily injury.

Cryer should have been in prison when he crashed his van, as he pleaded guilty in 2016 for inflicting injuries upon a baby and got two concurrent 5-year prison sentences, but, he was paroled in December of 2018, records show, just a few months before the crash.