Thursday, October 24, 2013

Cordle's Confession

"Plea delayed for Ohio man who admitted crash" by Andrew Welsh-Huggins |  AP Legal Affairs Writer, September 11, 2013

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio driver who made an online video in which he confessed to causing a fatal wrong-way crash after drinking heavily must wait at least a day to enter his promised guilty plea.

In a 3½-minute video posted last week, Matthew Cordle admitted he killed a man from a Columbus suburb and said he ‘‘made a mistake’’ when he decided to drive that night.

‘‘My name is Matthew Cordle, and on June 22d, 2013, I hit and killed Vincent Canzani,’’ he says. ‘‘This video will act as my confession.’’

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Also see:

Video confessor pleads guilty to fatal OUI in Ohio
Ohio man gets 6 years in fatal DUI

"Video confessor seeks shorter DUI term" by ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS |  AP Legal Affairs Writer, October 18, 2013

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio man who confessed in an online video to causing a fatal wrong-way crash after a night of drinking should receive a sentence well below the maximum of eight years to send a message about the value of taking responsibility, his attorneys argue in a court filing....

Matthew Cordle’s conduct after the crash suggests a long sentence is not needed for him to understand the seriousness of what he did, according to the filing late Wednesday in Franklin County court....

‘‘A fair sentence is imperative in this case in order to send a message to other offenders and society that taking responsibility and trying to make something positive come from such a horrendous tragedy is an exemplary way to face such a tragic situation,’’ defense attorneys George Breitmayer and Martin Midian said in the filing....

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UPDATE:

"The Ohio man who confessed in an online video to killing another driver in a crash after a night of drinking told The Columbus Dispatch that he might have gotten a sentence lighter than 6½ years had he not made the now-famous recording. Matthew Cordle, 22, said the case probably wouldn’t have become a national story if he hadn’t made the YouTube video, which has gotten more than 2 million hits."