Behind bars: Matthew Notebeart, 33, was sentenced to five years in prison for vehicular homicide and one year in prison for DUI causing injury on Thursday (Matthew and Amanda above at their wedding)
A 33 year-old man from Florida has been sentenced to a five year in prison for driving drunk which led to a crash that caused the death of his wife.
According to dailymail.co.uk, Matthew Notebeart stood by his attorney weeping after Judge Laura Johnson handed down the sentence in a Palm Beach County courtroom, telling the 33-year-old father of two that his wife’s death was a ‘senseless, tragic act.’
The ruling came a little over three years after Matthew crashed his car into a canal bank after driving the vehicle off a dirt road on March 9, 2014, causing his wife Amanda to strike her head on the windshield and dashboard.
She was pronounced dead at the scene, and it was later revealed that neither Matthew or his wife were wearing seat belts at the time because they were having sexual intercourse in the driver’s seat of the car, with Amanda sitting on her husband’s lap.
It had been Amanda’s first night out with her husband after the birth of their second child it was later revealed by Matthew, who has bought his wife tickets to a concert earlier that evening for Valentine’s Day.
The death of Amanda drove a wedge between the once happy family, with her parents and grandparents blaming Matthew for the fatal crash while friends of the couple said the victim would never want to see the father of her children behind bars.
‘You had a responsibility to get your wife home safely,’ said Amanda’s father Mike Stacey according to the Palm Beach Post, while asking that the judge sentence his former son-in-law to the maximum amount of time in prison.
Amanda’s parents were also upset with Matthew for keeping their grandchildren away from them in the wake of Amanda’s death they revealed in court on Thursday.
Just before her death, Amanda had named her daughter Stacey in honor of her father.
An aunt of Amanda’s was among those who spoke on behalf of Matthew ahead of his sentencing, saying that she believed it is what his late wife would have wanted to her to do in this awful situation.
Matthew entered a guilty plea back in February to a count of vehicular homicide as well as driving under the influence while causing injury to a person or property as part of plea deal, with prosecutors agreeing to drop the DUI manslaughter charge he was facing in the case.
He was facing a minimum sentence of 10 years, but given the circumstances of the case Matthew’s lawyer Steven Bell had been hopeful that his client might receive no jail time and just probation so that he could raise his 12-year-old son Gage and 3-year-old Stacey.
In the end, Matthew received five years for vehicular homicide and one year for the driving under the influence charge, which will run concurrent to his five-year sentence.
Once released, Matthew will serve two years probation during which he must complete 200 hours of community service, attend a DUI school, undergo random alcohol and drug testing, and his license will be suspended for 10 years.
When it came time to hand down the sentence in the case, Judge Johnson noted the past offenses Matthew had been charged with, which include reckless driving, leaving the scene of a crash and multiple felonies.
‘This isn’t your first chance. You’ve been to jail before, you’ve been on probation,’ said Judge Johnson.
‘You failed your wife, you failed your children and you failed all your family that is here today.’
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office probable cause affidavit in the case, which was filed back in March 2014, stated that Matthew was travelling 55mph on a 30mph dirt road with no lights at around 12:30am on March 9 when he crashed the car after he and Amanda attended the Rib Round Up Festival.
‘No evidence of braking was detected,’ read the report, which said that the car was ‘airborne for approximately 30 feet’ before it crashed into the bank.
The investigator who responded to the hospital where Matthew was taken ‘observed signs of impairment’ on the man including ‘red glassy eyes, a strong odor of unknown alcoholic beverage … and a flushed face.’
It was also noted that Matthew was vomiting in the hospital.
Back at the scene, authorities located a flask in the car filled with some ‘brown fluid’ which was later determined to be an alcoholic beverage.
It was after having his Miranda Rights read to him that Matthew admitted to drinking while driving the car and ‘that he and Amanda were naked, and that she was sitting on his lap when he drove off the end of the roadway violently striking the opposite canal bank killing [his wife].’
Toxicology reports would later reveal that Matthew had a blood alcohol level of .149, which is over twice the legal limit, and the presence of ‘active Marijuana THC.’
Amanda was just 31 at the time of her death.
