Driver gets 4-12 years for fatal crash
Mother of victim, woman whose house was struck by Jeep speak at sentencing
Jacob Sweeney’s mother fought through tears to address the young man responsible for her son’s death, telling him he deserves to be punished but that she still loves him as if he were her own.
“I love you like you were my own child,” Peggy Sweeney told John Playford during his sentencing Thursday morning in Ulster County Court. “That will never change.”
She urged Playford to write to her no matter where he ends up and said she would support him however she could. Sweeney said, though, that Playford deserves to serve his punishment even if it will not bring Jacob back.
Playford, 22, of Mower Mill Road, Saugerties pleaded guilty Nov. 2 in Ulster County Court to
the felony of vehicular manslaughter and the misdemeanor of reckless endangerment for the January car accident that claimed Jacob Sweeney’s life. On Thursday, Judge Donald A. Williams sentenced Playford to four to 12 years in state prison for the felony, as well as a concurrent term of one year for the misdemeanor. The maximum sentence for vehicular manslaughter is five to 15 years.
The charges stemmed from a one-vehicle crash on state Route 32 in Saugerties, near the Saxton Fire Department, that occurred about 3:25 a.m. Jan. 31.
Jacob Sweeney, 22, of Saugerties, was a front-seat passenger in the vehicle.
“I miss my boy so very much,” Peggy Sweeney said, adding that it’s difficult to get out of bed some days.
When he pleaded guilty, Playford admitted having a blood-alcohol content of 0.18 percent or higher at the time of the crash and that he also was under the influence of marijuana. The threshold for drunken driving in New York state is 0.08 percent.
The crash investigation showed Playford was speeding while southbound on Route 32, lost control of the Jeep he was driving and struck a telephone pole, severing it. The vehicle then continued several hundred feet, crashed through a snow bank, became airborne and struck the house at 3843 Route 32.
The Jeep went into a bedroom where two young boys were sleeping, but they were not physically injured.
Jacob Sweeney was ejected from the Jeep before it came to rest on its roof, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Playford was treated for minor injuries at Health Alliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus in Kingston and released.
Playford spoke in court prior to being sentenced and started to cry near the end of his statement.
“‘Sorry’ doesn’t even cover anything ... doesn’t fix anything,” he said.
He said he loved Jacob Sweeney “like he was my own brother,” that they grew up together and that he wished he could trade places with his friend.
Michelle Paff, the mother of the two boys whose room the Jeep went into, also addressed the court before Playford was sentenced, speaking about how her sons, then ages 12 and 14, were affected by the crash.
“They could have died,” she said.
Though not physically injured, both boys were affected mentally, she said, adding that the family could not remain in their home and had to move.
She said her sons could not even return to the residence to pack their own possessions because of the trauma they experienced.
Paff urged Williams to sentence Playford to the maximum and mandate that he attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and perform community service.
Williams said he could not, by law, mandate rehabilitation or community service for Playford but said he would urge the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to do so.