Man having sex with wife during fatal DUI crash gets 5 years
A judge in Florida gave a stern admonishment to a man she sentenced to five years in prison for a drunken wreck that killed his wife as they had sex, calling it one of the “most senseless, tragic acts” she had ever seen.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Laura Johnson sentenced Matthew Notebaert, 33, on Wednesday for the fatal crash on March 8, 2014, as the couple celebrated Amanda Notebaert’s first night out after giving birth to their second child.
“This isn’t your first chance,” Johnson told Notebaert, according to the Palm Beach Post. “You’ve been to jail before, you’ve been on probation. … You failed your wife, you failed your children and you failed all your family that is here today.”
Notebaert told Johnson that he missed his wife “more than words can express” and detailed the night that changed his life forever, saying the couple started drinking from a flask of whisky they snuck into a country music concert. Then, during their ride home after the show, the couple — with Matthew Notebaert behind the wheel — pulled over and started getting intimate.
His wife was soon sitting on his lap, Notebaert said, and the next memory he had was waking up in the couple’s Chevrolet Equinox next to his wife’s body. Her head had crashed into the dashboard and windshield and she died at the scene, according to arrest reports.
The couple’s SUV had been traveling at speeds of 55 mph in a 30-mph zone and missing three warning signs of a canal ahead. The Equinox crashed into the canal so hard that it was airborne for about 30 feet, crashing into the opposite bank of the canal.
Neighbors, at the time of the crash, said it was hard to fathom how the couple missed the signs on the dead-end street just one block away from their Loxahatchee home.
“As soon as you come down the street, you see the reflectors all the way down the street,” neighbor Noelle Zulli Adams told WPBF.com. “You know it’s a dead-end.”
A toxicology report found Matthew Notebaert had a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the limit of impairment in Florida and also had marijuana in his system.
Meanwhile, some relatives of Amanda Notebaert did not mince words on what they felt was the appropriate punishment for killing her and leaving two children – a 12-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter — without a mother.
“You had a responsibility to get your wife home safely,” said the woman’s parents, Lisa and Mike Stacey, who asked Johnson to give their son-in-law the “maximum allowable sentence.”
Prosecutors, however, felt the 10-year minimum recommended sentence was too harsh and recommended a seven-year term. But Johnson noted Notebaert’s previous criminal history, including charges of cocaine possession, burglary and grand theft, when handing down his sentence.