22-year-old Matthew Cordle, the Ohio man who confessed in a YouTube video that he killed a man while driving drunk, was sentenced Wednesday to six-and-a-half years in prison and a lifetime suspension of his driver's license, CNN reported.
Cordle was also ordered to pay court costs and a $1,075 fine. In early September, he posted a video that went viral confessing that he had driven drunk on June 22, leading to striking and killing Vincent Canzani, a 61-year-old. Cordle soon surrendered to authorities and was charged for vehicular homicide in the wrong-way crash.
Cordle told a judge in September that he "blacked out" from consuming too much alcohol but that he attended a two-week alcohol rehabilitation program, and had not been drinking since the day of the crash.
Cordle's YouTube video was played again in the courtroom on Wednesday. A letter read by the judge written by Cheryl Oates, Canzani's ex-wife, underscored that the victim would not want Cordle should receive the maximum sentence after being "sincere in admitting he was sorry" for taking another man's life, CNN reported.
"Nothing will bring Vincent back. I know what pain Matthew feels. The pain will stay with him until his death," Oates wrote in the letter.
Another letter read aloud in the courtroom had been from Harold Dennis Jr., a survivor of drunk driving crash in Carrollton, Kentucky in 1988. Dennis had lost several friends and suffered third-degree burns on his body "as a result of one man's decision to drive drunk."
Dennis said Cordle showed "courage to surrender and take responsibility for his actions and show contrition to the family of his victim."
Angela Canzani, the victim's daughter, meanwhile said that a light sentencing will enable "Matthew Cordle [to] have his life back -- my father is never coming back," she said.
"It should have been me instead of an innocent man. I vow that I'll do everything I can to prevent it from happening again and his memory from fading," Cordle told the courtroom before receiving his six-and-a-half year sentence, CNN reported.
