The Porter family aren’t done being out of the week’s headlines yet, since the youngest brother, Coban, has been charged with a serious DUI offense.
Just two days after Jontay Porter received a lifetime ban from the NBA for blantantly violating the league’s gambling rules, Coban was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a woman in a drunk-driving crash last year.
The 22-year-old pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and vehicular assault on Friday from a February incident. But only on the condition that he would be sentenced to no more than eight years in prison.
Without the plea, he could have faced 12 years in prison.
Porter said in a Denver courtroom, “All I can really say is that I’m sorry. 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.”
The Former University of Denver basketball player was driving under the influence of alcohol right before 2am on Jan. 22, 2023, when he ran a red light and crashed into another vehicle at an intersection.
The driver of the other car, 42-year-old Kathy Limon Rothman was killed, and the passenger, Jason Branch, was seriously injured.
Prosecutors said Porter was driving 20 mph over the speed limit (50 mph in a 30 mph zone) and his blood-alcohol level was .19 (more than twice the legal limit).
Rothman was a mother to a 5-year-old son and was working as an Uber driver at the time.
Rothman’s own mother, Connie Johnson spoke in court and was completely heartbroken by the loss.
“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.”
The oldest of the Porter brothers, Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr., spoke in support of Coban and shared that he was the first member of his family to learn about the fatal crash.
Porter Jr. and others vouched for Coban’s character in court and MPJ said that he wouldn’t be in the position he is today as a pro basketball without Coban pushing him everyday.
“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,” Porter Jr. said.
