COEUR d’ALENE — A Hayden man who pleaded guilty to causing a head-on collision that killed a family will serve time in prison and may be ordered to pay child support to the victims’ surviving children.
Matthew D. Martin, 39, pleaded guilty in August to four counts of vehicular manslaughter, all misdemeanors.
Idaho law defines murder as the unlawful killing of a human being, including a fetus, without malice aforethought. If driving a motor vehicle is a substantial cause of death as a result of an “unlawful act, not a crime, without gross negligence,” the act is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.
Last year, a grand jury indicted Martin on charges filed on the night of November 18, 2022.
Martin was driving northbound on US 95 near Milepost 423 in Kootenai County in a Ford F550. According to Idaho State Police, he left the northbound lane and entered the southbound lane before colliding head-on with a Subaru Legacy.
The driver of the Subaru was a 30-year-old Post Falls woman who was pregnant. Her 32-year-old husband and 62-year-old mother were also in the vehicle. All passengers of the Subaru died on the spot.
Before Martin received his sentence, a surviving family member approached the court. She described her grief for her mother, sister, brother-in-law and the baby boy the couple was expecting.
“It’s hard enough to lose one loved one, but losing four at once is unbearable,” she said.
She said the fatal accident had ruined her life and made her family’s life a living hell.
“I want justice,” she told the court. “Not now and I will never forgive you for what you did to my family.”
The exact cause of the crash remains unclear. Kootenai County Prosecutor Stan Mortensen said Martin gave conflicting explanations about what happened that night, including that he was looking at his phone and that he had health problems.
The defense attorney said blood tests showed Martin had no drugs or alcohol in his system, and phone records showed he was not using his phone at the time of the accident. His lawyer said he wasn’t driving too fast.
“I would like to apologize to the family,” Martin said in court. “I don’t know if any words I say will mean anything. If I could take it back, I would. I can apologize all day long. It doesn’t change anything.”
First District Judge Ross Pittman called the crash a “nightmare scenario.” He noted that alcohol, drugs and speed did not play a role in the crash, although he believed it could have been prevented.
“The evidence showed that something happened that caused you to stray from your lane,” he told Martin. “This action led to an unimaginable tragedy – the death of four people.”
Pittman sentenced Martin to four years in prison, one for each count of vehicular homicide, to be served consecutively. Pittman ordered Martin to spend 30 days in jail and suspended the rest of his sentence. After his release, Martin will spend four years on probation.
The sentence was imposed pursuant to Rule 11 of a plea agreement, which is an agreement in which a defendant pleads guilty to a specific charge in exchange for a specific sentence.
In most cases, judges take into account sentencing recommendations made by the parties involved in the case, but may impose whatever sentence they consider appropriate. However, under a Rule 11 agreement, judges are obliged to respect the agreement reached between the state and the defense. The judge may accept or reject the consent under Rule 11, but cannot change it.
Prosecutors said the victims’ family participated in the mediation.
“The state and the victims of this case are struggling with this,” Mortensen said. “This is a good solution because it eliminates the risk of not being convicted at all at trial.”
The lawyers indicated that in future proceedings they would address the possibility of alimony for the four surviving children. In a manslaughter case that results in the death of a parent of minor children, Idaho law allows a court to order the perpetrator to pay child support for each minor child until the minor child reaches the age of 18.