Two families have now lost a father due to a fatal crash last July.
Judge Joe Sutton sentenced Matthew Wagoner, 30, of 10398 N. Grove Road, Milford, Thursday for causing the crash that killed another driver and injured six others, including Wagoner and his two children.
In Kosciusko Superior Court 3, Wagoner, represented by attorney Mark E. Caruso, faced allegations of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated causing death and serious injury. Sutton allowed Wagoner, Caruso and prosecutor Katie Hampton to speak to the court.
Wagoner told the court he was not high on meth at the time of the accident. He claimed he had planned on spending the afternoon with his two young children, who were injured in the accident.
Wagoner said he was tired from work and an extensive three weeks of drug use. During the accident, Wagoner remembers his children screaming and seeing the pain he caused on the faces of the other family.
Jeremy Valentine, the other driver, was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife and two children were seriously injured. Wagoner admitted to the court that he wished he could have taken Valentine’s place, and that he thought to himself every day since, “Why wasn’t it me?” Wagoner expressed remorse about not being able to see his own children grow up.
Hampton read a grief-fueled letter written by Valentine’s cousin to court, outlining the travesty that has fallen on her family. His wife is a widow; his children are fatherless. Hampton expressed her own emotions toward the case, knowing Wagoner’s criminal history with meth use. She claimed that the crash was not an accident and that Wagoner had to be held responsible.
Wagoner was charged following the accident with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicatd causing death; three counts of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated causing serious bodily injury; neglect of a dependent causing serious bodily injury; and operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a minor passenger in the vehicle. He pleaded guilty in August to the felony charges stemming from the accident, though the charge of driving while intoxicated with a minor passenger was dropped prior to his plea.
Wagoner was sentenced Thursday to 18 consecutive years in the Indiana Department of Correction. Judge Sutton also made it clear that Wagoner would not pay court costs or anything else related to the charges until he had paid the $5,000 restitution to the Valentine family.
(Story By The Times Union)
