Man Sentenced In DUI Crash That Killed Wife As They Had Sex
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (KDKA) -- A Florida man has been sentenced to prison for a drunken driving crash that killed his wife as they had sex.
The Palm Beach Post reports 33-year-old Matthew Notebaert was sentenced to five years behind bars on Wednesday. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to vehicular homicide and driving under the influence after prosecutors agreed to drop a manslaughter charge.
Police say he and his wife, Amanda, were headed home from a concert in 2014 when they pulled off the road and became intimate. At some point, they resumed driving, with Notebaert's wife sitting in his lap.
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Investigators say the man was speeding when he crashed into a canal. His wife died at the scene.
A toxicology report showed Notebaert's blood alcohol level was 0.149 percent. Florida law considers a driver impaired at 0.08 percent.
The couple had two children.
The crash caused a deep rift between the couple's families.
Amanda Notebaert's parents and grandmother say her husband was to blame for the crash. Others say the couple was very much in love up until the moment of Amanda's death, and that she wouldn't want him to go to jail.
"I miss her more than words can express," Matthew Notebaert said of his wife during a tearful plea to the judge.