NORFOLK, Va. — A Norfolk man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Friday after he crashed his car while under the influence, killing his girlfriend in the passenger seat, in 2021.
Jonathan Brownell, 36, was speeding through a construction zone on Interstate 64 near Granby Street on Sept. 21, 2021 around 2:30 a.m. when he narrowly avoided hitting workers and then swerved into a stationary street sweeper truck, according to the Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Office.
The crash killed Samantha Leigh Sims, 23, instantly.
According to the car's airbag control module, Brownell was driving between 95 and 104 miles per hour seconds before the impact.
The car was pinned under the street sweeper and emergency responders had to cut open the vehicle to extract Brownell from the driver's seat.
Virginia State Police troopers noticed a strong smell of alcohol on the inside of the vehicle. Brownell was also observed to have watery, glassy, bloodshot eyes when he was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
His blood was drawn an hour after the crash and was recorded between .16 and .18, more than twice the legal alcohol limit.
Brownell pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular manslaughter on April 24 this year.
His sentence includes 12 active years in prison, four years suspended on the conditions that Brownell's license be revoked, no contact with Sim's family and three years of uniform good behavior and supervised probation.
“This case is a tragedy of Mr. Brownell’s making. Mr. Brownell drove drunk and killed his girlfriend,” Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi wrote in a news release. “If Mr. Brownell had called for a ride, Ms. Sims would be alive today, and he would be free. It all could have been prevented.”
