Driver who killed cyclist to return to prison
A man who spent four years in prison for killing a bicyclist on the Northwest Side while driving drunk in 2007 was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison for driving despite having a lifetime license suspension.
And he had been drinking again.
Spencer W. Andrews, 35, of Runaway Bay Drive on the West Side, was arrested in July for driving while intoxicated on Dublin Road between Dublin and Hilliard. He pleaded guilty to the charge in October in Franklin County Municipal Court and was sentenced to one year in the county jail.
In February 2009, Andrews pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide in the death of 19-yearold Michael T. Sonney. Andrews was driving drunk in a pickup truck that struck Sonney’s bicycle on Snouffer Road between 3 and 4 a.m. on July 25, 2007. He fled the scene of the crash and was arrested after investigators followed a mile-long trail of radiator fluid to find his truck.
He was sentenced in 2009 to four years in prison by thenCommon Pleas Judge Richard Sheward, who also imposed the lifetime license suspension. Andrews was released from prison in March 2013.
Because he received a lifetime license suspension in 2009 as part of his sentence for the fatal crash, the drunkendriving arrest also led to a felony charge of driving while under suspension.
“I’m very sorry I did this,” Andrews told Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Holbrook. “I have a serious problem with alcohol. ... I’ve really screwed up.”
He said he is in Alcoholics Anonymous and is making progress toward recovery.
Andrews was eligible for probation, but “he hasn’t gotten the message” and deserved prison, Assistant Prosecutor Keith McGrath said.