Man Sentenced In NJ Parkway Crash That Killed Wife
TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) -- A drunk driver whose wife was killed when he crashed into a toll plaza on the Garden State Parkway in southern New Jersey is headed to prison.
Ben Pham of Somers Point had pleaded guilty last October to vehicular homicide charges in the December 2007 crash. He received a five-year term Friday and must serve 85 percent of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
Pham and his 44-year-old wife, Su Ping Xia, were headed home from a family function in New York City when he slammed their car into an abutment at the Barnegat toll plaza in Ocean County.
At the time, the couple lived in Egg Harbor Township.
Prosecutors say relatives had urged the 55-year-old Pham not to drive, telling him he was too drunk, but he refused.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
