photo by: Mackenzie Clark/Journal-World File Photo

In this Journal-World file photo from March 11, 2020, Eric L. Spaeth, of Lawrence, left, stands with his defense attorney, Joshua Luttrell, in Douglas County District Court.

A Lawrence man was sentenced to almost eight years in prison during an emotional court hearing Tuesday.

Eric Lee Spaeth, 44, pleaded no contest to one count of involuntary manslaughter, a level-3 felony, in a crash that killed a woman who was riding her moped in the 2700 block of Haskell Avenue almost one year ago on the night of Aug. 20, 2019.

Elizabeth Ann Allen was a 24-year-old mother of two daughters, engaged to be married in 2021. She died at the scene of the crash as paramedics rendered aid, the Journal-World has reported.

“She was just driving home to her family from visiting her mother when her life was taken by the selfish, self-indulgent and reckless actions of the defendant,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Eve Kemple said during the hearing.

photo by: Douglas County Sheriff’s Office

Eric Spaeth, pictured in December 2019

Kemple said Allen’s family wanted Spaeth to serve the longest amount of time allowable. She said that under the law, someone who has already been caught driving while intoxicated, as Spaeth had, “should have absolutely known better than to ever drive drunk again.”

“I lost my daughter, Liz,” Allen’s mother told the Douglas County District Court Judge Amy Hanley at Tuesday’s hearing. “I will always have a hole in my heart because of it.”

Kemple read a statement from Allen’s fiance, who said Allen was the only woman he’d ever loved and the most genuine person he’d ever met. Spaeth had taken her away from him and from their children, the statement said.

“There will be no more ice cream dates, nail salon visits and hair appointments with their mother,” he wrote. “I’ve had countless nights of waking up with my children screaming for their mother. I am doing all that I can to comfort them.”

Spaeth’s defense attorney, Joshua Luttrell, said he hoped that somebody somewhere hears about this case and decides to think twice before they drink and drive. He said Spaeth wanted to take responsibility for his actions by agreeing to the plea.

Spaeth also addressed the court. He said he knew there was nothing he could say that would comfort Allen’s family, and he knew that they would never be the same. He said he was sorry, though he knew that was “nowhere near anything that would console them,” he said.

“I hope that the family, through the grieving process, gets to a point where they’re not remembering her death, they’re remembering her life,” he said.

Spaeth said it was an accident, and he didn’t think he would hurt somebody. He said he doesn’t know how he didn’t see the moped. He said that every day of his life, he will carry this.

“That’s not something that people get over,” he said.

In sentencing Spaeth to 94 months, Hanley said she appreciated that Spaeth was accepting responsibility, “but nothing that you can do now will bring Elizabeth back, and you must be held accountable, and you must have consequences, and you must change your pattern of drinking and driving.”

Hanley said Spaeth had ruined other lives — Allen’s family’s, his family’s and his own. She said that needed to resonate with him. Whether it was an accident or not didn’t make any difference, because Allen was gone.

“You owe it to her; you owe it to Elizabeth to change your life,” Hanley said. “And I hope that those years spent in prison will be used thinking about exactly how you will do that.”

Spaeth was remanded into custody and booked into the Douglas County Jail after the hearing.