Coban Porter, the brother of Denver Nuggets star Michael Porter Jr., was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for killing a woman in a drunk-driving crash last year.
Porter, 22, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and vehicular assault in February on the condition that he would be sentenced to no more than eight years in prison. He could have faced up to 12 years in prison without the plea agreement.
“All I can really say is that I’m sorry,” Porter said in a Denver courtroom Friday. “I know that I’m never going to be able to right that wrong… I never thought I’d be standing here. I thought I was invincible. It wasn’t the first time I chose to drink and drive… I’m so sorry.”
Porter was driving drunk just before 2 a.m. on Jan. 22, 2023, when he ran a red light and crashed into another vehicle at the intersection of South University and Buchtel boulevards in Denver. The other driver, Kathy Limon Rothman, 42, was killed, and a passenger in her vehicle was seriously injured.
Prosecutors on Friday said Porter was driving 50 mph in a 30 mph zone and his blood-alcohol level was .19, more than twice the legal limit of .08. Rothman, mother to a young son, was working as an Uber driver at the time.
Connie Johnson, Rothman’s mother, said in court Friday that her life ended in the crash along with her daughter’s.
“This pain and trauma have become my worst reality,” she said. “…Every part of my life that brings joy and happiness is met in tandem with the anguish of her absence. …His choice caused my grandson to grow up without a mother. Caused my son-in-law to be a widower, and caused my husband and I to lose a child.”
Many people spoke both for Rothman’s family and in support of Porter during the emotional hearing in Denver District Court on Friday. Michael Porter Jr. described how he was the first in his family to learn about the fatal crash, when a police officer called to tell him around 7 a.m. that morning.
“He said, ‘Coban has been in a fatal accident.’ He didn’t specify if Coban was the one who died or if it was someone else,” Michael Porter Jr. said, turning to Rothman’s family. “I understand your family’s pain and hurt. When he didn’t specify what it was, I felt that. I know that if I were in your shoes and it was reversed, I would have a lot of feelings as well.”
He and others described Coban Porter as a man of quality character, a hard worker full of remorse for his actions.
“I truly don’t think I’d be in the position I am today as a professional basketball player without a brother like Coban pushing me every day,” Michael Porter Jr. said. “He would get up earlier than me, work out harder than me. I know it’s not often that a big brother looks up to a younger brother, but that is how it was for me.”
Prosecutor Austin Leighty asked District Court Judge Erica Englert to give Porter the maximum eight years in prison on the vehicular homicide conviction, and asked for six years on the vehicular assault conviction. He noted that the red light Porter ran was red for at least 23 seconds before Porter drove through it, and said Porter did not take any action to slow down until a half-second before the fatal collision.
“This was not an accident,” Leighty said. “This was a series of decisions that led to a fatal crash. …He drank and he drank. If he would have left his home and gotten a ride, none of us would be here. But he didn’t. And after he drank and drank and drank, he got into his car to drive.”
Porter later agreed with Leighty that his decisions led to the crash.
“He’s right, it wasn’t an accident,” he said. “I chose to drive there, I chose to drink and I chose to try to drive home. I didn’t mean to hurt her. I hope you know that. I know that doesn’t change anything.”
Johnson on Friday said she wanted to see justice done, but didn’t ask for a specific sentence. She and other family members asked Porter to use his status to speak publicly about the dangers of drunk driving.
“I do not wish hate upon Mr. Porter,” she said. “He is a young man with a bright future ahead of him who made a selfish and reckless choice.”
Porter has not drunk alcohol or driven a vehicle since the crash, said Harvey Steinberg, his attorney. He asked the judge to fashion a sentence that required Porter to speak to young people in schools about the dangers of drunk driving, and suggested such a sentence would be better than “warehousing” him in prison.
Englert declined to do so, but still encouraged Porter to use his platform for drunk driving education, even though she sentenced him to prison.
“You have clearly been called on to make good of this tragedy,” the judge said.
Members of Porter’s family sobbed as he was handcuffed and taken into custody after the sentencing, some telling him they loved him and one person calling out that he would be OK.
Rothman’s family and the passenger in her car, Jason Blanch, this year sued Porter and the bar where he drank that night. The lawsuit alleges staff at the Crimson and Gold Tavern, a sports bar that caters to University of Denver students, overserved Porter that night. The crash happened less than a mile from the bar.
Porter was at the time a student and basketball player at DU; he left the school in early 2023.
Porter’s older brother, 24-year-old Jontay Porter, also made headlines this week when he was banned from the NBA after a league investigation found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors about his health, and limited his own participation in games for betting purposes.
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