Cordle is the Ohio man who confessed in an online YouTube video nearly three months after he hit and killed 61-year-old Vincent Canzani while driving drunk. Cordle fled the scene and was never caught, but was finally arrested after his online confession went viral.
During the sentencing on October 22 the video was played for the court. After the video Canzani’s daughter, Angela Canzani spoke on behalf of her father and said, “My father got a death sentence. Eight-and-a-half years is nothing,” she told the judge, referring to the maximum sentence Cordle could have received. “After eight-and-a-half years, Matthew Cordle will have his life back, my father is never coming back.”
Cordle also spoke at the hearing, offering another apology to the victim’s family.
“It should have been me instead of an innocent man. I vow that I’ll do everything I can to prevent it from happening again and his memory from fading.”
Cordle says he will make it his life goal to make sure that Canzani did not die in vein, and will make sure his memory lives on.
Cordle says he has not touched a drink since the day of the accident.