Facebook - Amanda Stacey Notebaert
A man has been jailed for five years after his wife was killed when he drove their car into a canal while they were having sex.
On March 8, 2014, Matthew Notebaert, 33, and his wife, Amanda, – who family described as ‘madly in love’ – were enjoying their first night out together at a concert after Amanda had given birth to the couple’s second child, Stacey.
After taking a flask to the concert and drinking throughout the night, Notebaert said they started driving back to their Loxahatchee home when they decided to pull over and became intimate, the Palm Beach Post reports.
By the time he drove on Southern Boulevard, Notebaert said, his wife was sitting in his lap. The next thing he remembered was waking up in a crashed car next to her body.
‘I miss her more than words can express,’ Notebaert said during his trial.
But reports showed that the car had hit the canal so hard that it became airborne for around nine metres. Toxicology reports showed Notebaert had twice the legal blood alcohol level and there was marijuana in his system.
‘You had a responsibility to get your wife home safely,” said Amanda’s parents, Lisa and Mike Stacey, who asked Judge Johnson to give their son-in-law the ‘maximum allowable sentence.’
In sentencing Matthew, Judge Laura Johnson said ‘this isn’t your first chance…you’ve been to jail before’.
‘You failed your wife, you failed your children and you failed all your family that is here today.’
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