Coban Porter, the younger brother of Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr., has been sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to charges regarding a 2023 DUI crash that left one woman dead.
A judge handed down the sentence during a hearing on Friday. Porter was arrested in January 2023 and initially pleaded not guilty in October. However, he changed his decision in February 2024 under the condition that he would receive no more than an eight-year prison sentence. Without the plea agreement, Porter faced up to 12 years in prison. Porter's brother, Michael, also testified during the hearing.
"All I can really say is that I'm sorry," Porter said in the courtroom on 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 in the middle of the night when he ran a red light and hit another car at the intersection of South University and Buchtel boulevard in Denver. The driver of the other car, 42-year-old Kathy Limon Rothman, was killed, while the passenger in her car, 47-year-old Jason Blanch, was seriously injured.
Prosecutors stated Porter was driving at an estimated speed of 50 mph, and his blood-alcohol level was .20, more than twice the legal limit of .08. Rothman and Blanch's family filed lawsuits in January against Porter that alleged he was drinking at a sports bar and was "visibly intoxicated."
Rothman was working as an Uber driver for Blanch at the time of the incident. According to the lawsuits, Rothman had a green light, and Porter did not.
Porter isn't the only person in his family dealing with some trouble. Jontay Porter, who played for the Toronto Raptors, was recently banned from the NBA for gambling after the league found out from an investigation that he was giving information to bettors about his health and purposely sat out of a game.
