TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Sobbing Fills Court As Driver In Fatal DUI Gets 10 Years

ADVERTISEMENT

By TODD LESKANIC, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 17, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - Richard Couey saw to it that his friends didn't drink and drive.

He was their designated driver, the one who got out of bed at odd hours to chauffeur them from place to place.
Robert Allen Woods could have used someone like Couey on the night of Dec. 9, 2005. Instead, the 37-year-old drove his Chevy van after loading up on enough alcohol to put his blood-alcohol level near 0.2.

In his drunkenness, Woods lost control of his van, crossed the center line of Monteverde Drive and collided head-on with Couey's Ford Fairmont.

Couey, 24, died instantly, the victim of the very thing he hated. His wife of two months, Tiamekia, was seriously injured.

On Friday, Woods pleaded no contest to DUI-manslaughter and was sentenced to 10.4 years in prison. Couey's family, no relation to convicted child killer John Couey, watched from the back of Judge Thane Covert's courtroom, tears streaming from their eyes.

Couey's mother, Kay, was so distraught and angry about her son's death that she couldn't address the court, opting instead to have Mothers Against Drunk Driving victim's advocate Cheryl Henrion read her statement.

"When I try to sleep, I think about his last words to me," Henrion read. "I wonder if he was aware of what happened to him. Was he hurting? Could he feel himself bleeding out? Did he try to speak or ask for help?

"Was there time? What was he thinking? Did he think about me or his dad during this time? Was he scared? Did he hear his bones break? Did he yell in pain? I can't stop this from playing over and over in my mind."

Woods stood with his head down as Henrion aired the family's anger and grief. She read a second statement, this one from Couey's 13-year-old nephew, Justin Wolfe.

"We get sad when we think about him and how he had to die for someone else's stupid decision," Henrion read. "We never got to say goodbye. It's just not fair."

One of Couey's two brothers, Eric, was so overcome by his brother's death that he attempted suicide in January. He survived only because a friend hit his hand at the last second, changing the path of what would have been a fatal bullet.
Covert had the final words to Woods before he was taken away.

"You killed a man you didn't even know," the judge said, "a man who did a lot of good for a lot of people."

And a man who could have done Woods a lot of good on Dec. 9, 2005.

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT