Driver gets two years in prison in incident that killed wife

The driver behind the wheel in an April accident that fatally injured his wife was sentenced to prison in Putnam Superior Court Tuesday afternoon

In a plea agreement, Alexander P. King, 28, of 146 Lincoln Hills, Coatesville (Heritage Lake), pled guilty to causing death while operating a motor vehicle with a blood-alcohol concentration of .15 percent or greater, a Level 4 felony which carries a sentencing range of 2-12 years.

In return for that guilty plea, the Putnam County Prosecutor's Office agreed to dismiss a reckless homicide charge against the defendant.

King was driving a 1997 BMW about 6 p.m. on April 4 when it crashed near Bainbridge in an accident that claimed the life of his wife, Megan Witty, 29, Coatesville, a Brownsburg High School teacher.

In court Tuesday, King was sentenced to six years -- two years in prison, two years on home detention and two years on probation by Putnam Superior Court Judge Denny Bridges. Under the new Indiana criminal code, he will have to serve 75 percent of the prison time (18 months) in a Department of Correction facility.

The courtroom was packed with spectators, most of them in support of the defendant, and mainly from Parke County where King was raised.

Prosecutor Timothy Bookwalter said he had received more than 50 letters from friends and acquaintances of King, indicating he is "extremely remorseful" and had undergone counseling and noting his work as an educator. Bookwalter, however, argued for a six-year sentence with four years served in prison and two on home detention.

Meanwhile, defense attorney Michael Stites of Rockville argued for a six-year sentence with four years served on home detention and two suspended.

Bookwalter, meanwhile, said it would send the wrong message if King were allowed to "walk out the door" without serving time in jail.

The sentence imposed, he said, reinforces the idea "you cannot take another human life."

"If you kill another human being, you're going to go to prison," he assured the Banner Graphic, noting that King was not only drunk at the time of the fatal accident but also "extremely reckless in what he did."

What he did, witnesses testified, was pass on double-yellow lines, pass going up a hill on a double yellow and passed vehicles on a curves while westbound on the Big Walnut bridge on U.S. 36, east of Bainbridge.

Witty died at the scene from head trauma after the speeding westbound BMW convertible went out of control, left the roadway and crashed into a limestone/earthen retaining wall, with impact severely impacting the passenger's side of the vehicle.

King was trapped in the car and had to be extricated before being flown via medical helicopter to St. Vincent Hospital at Indianapolis. However, he sustained only minor injuries.

No other vehicles were involved in the actual accident. Also, no mechanical issues were discovered in the BMW during its inspection, court records noted.

Indiana State Police accident reconstruction expert Trooper Jim Cody of the Putnamville Post testified that the car was traveling a minimum of 80 mph when the vehicle went into a slide as King attempted to pass a truck in a double-yellow zone.

Toxicology report records showed King had a blood-alcohol content of .17 percent -- more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent -- at the time of the fatal accident.

Following sentencing Tuesday by Judge Bridges, King was given 48 hours to turn himself in and begin his DOC sentence.