Man gets 4 years for wreck that killed woman

LIMA — Her voice cracking with emotion and tears running down her face, Stephanie Carter blasted the man who ran into her car, killing her mother.

“I will never forgive you,” Carter said Monday. “Whenever I see your picture or hear your name, all I can think is you’re the man who killed my mother.”

That man, Dennis J. Key II, was sentenced to four years in prison Monday and his driver’s license was suspended for life. Key was convicted of aggravated vehicular homicide for the April 4 crash on state Route 81 at Stewart Road that killed 42-year-old Tammy S. Carter.

Key also was ordered to pay funeral expenses of $7,997.

Stephanie Carter was driving westbound with her mother as a passenger when she turned in front of Key’s car. Key was charged after it was learned he was driving at a high rate of speed and tested positive for marijuana.

Carter said her mother meant the world to her and solely blamed Key for her death.

“You did this, Mr. Key. You took my life, you took my mother. You took everything from me,” she said.

Key apologized for his role.

“By no means was I out to do that this day,” he said. “It was an accident, and that happens every day.”

The 25-year-old Key admitted to Allen County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Reed that he was using marijuana on a regular basis since he was 16 or 17. He denied smoking marijuana the day of the accident and said his high test level was from the day before.

Reed said the case should serve as a lesson to the community’s marijuana smokers that the drug dulls the senses and a person’s ability to react.

“The decision that you make, things can happen in an instant,” Reed said.