Man indicted after confessing on YouTube to a drunk-driving crash which killed another man
Updated: An Ohio man has been indicted by a grand jury after he confessed on video to killing another man while driving drunk.
“I killed a man,” 22-year-old Matt Cordle says in the video posted on the Internet last week. “I take full responsibility for everything I’ve done to [the victim] and his family.”
On Monday, Cordle was indicted by a Franklin County grand jury on charges of aggravated vehicular homicide and of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, says the Columbus Dispatch. His attorney George Breitmayer III says that his client will plead guilty to the charge on Tuesday.
“Any of the naysayers out there, they are going to find out … he didn’t do this [video] for any other purpose but to raise awareness about drunken driving and get some closure for the victim’s family,” Breitmayer told the Dispatch.
Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said that Cordle’s blood-alcohol level was 0.19 when he struck the Jeep of 61-year-old Vincent Canzani, a Navy veteran and photographer. Canzani was killed. Cordle was driving the wrong way on I-670 at the time of the June 22 crash.
In the video, posted on a website called becauseisaidiwould.com, Cordle admits to being out with friends, drinking heavily and losing control of his vehicle.
“I can’t bring Mr. Canzani back, and I can’t erase what I’ve done, but you can still be saved, your victims can still be saved,” Cordle says on the video.
Breitmayer told CNN affiliate WBNS that he didn’t know about the video until it was posted online. But he called it a testament to Cordle’s integrity and character. “And I know that he intends to fully cooperate throughout the tenancy of these proceedings,” he added.
O’Brien, who says he plans to ask the judge for the maximum sentence, told the Dispatch that he sees Cordle’s video apology as sincere. Cordle faces a sentence of two to eight and a half years.
Updated at 3:05 p.m. after Cordle was indicted.
