Coban Porter sentenced to 6 years in prison for deadly DUI crash same week his brother Jontay banned from NBA
Coban Porter, the younger brother of Denver Nuggets standout Michael Porter Jr., was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for killing a woman in a drunk-driving crash, according to the Denver Post.
The sentence arrived only two days after Jontay Porter, Coban and Michael's other brother, was banned for life from the NBA for his role in a gambling scheme.
The crash that led to Coban's incarceration occurred early the morning of Jan. 22, 2023, with an arrest coming later that day. The 22-year-old was reportedly driving drunk just before 2 a.m. when he ran a red light and crashed into a vehicle driven by Kathy Limon Rothman. Rothman, 42, was killed, and a passenger in her vehicle was seriously injured.
Prosecutors reportedly said Porter was driving 50 mph in a 30 zone with a blood alcohol level of .19. Rothman, who had a young son, was driving for Uber at the time.
Porter pleaded guilty in February to vehicular homicide and vehicular assault, reportedly on the condition that he be sentenced to no more than eight years in prison. He faced up to 12 years if found guilty in a trial.
From the Post:
“All I can really say is that I’m sorry,” Porter said in a Denver courtroom 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.”
Connie Johnson, Rothman’s mother, reportedly said in court Friday that her life also ended in the crash:
“This pain and trauma have become my worst reality,” she said. “… Every part of my life that brings joy and happiness is met in tandem with the anguish of her absence. … His choice caused my grandson to grow up without a mother. Caused my son-in-law to be a widower, and caused my husband and I to lose a child.”
Before the crash, Porter was a guard on the University of Denver basketball team. He averaged 11.4 points per game in his freshman year in 2021-22, making him the latest in a string of players from a prominent basketball family.
Bri and Cierra Porter, Coban's older sisters, were the first members of the family to play college basketball at Missouri, where their father, Michael Sr., worked as an assistant coach for the men's team. Michael Jr. was a top recruit who was set for stardom for the Tigers but ended up playing only three games due to a back injury before he found success in the NBA with the Denver Nuggets.
Jontay also played for Missouri and reached the NBA as an undrafted player. He spent most of his professional career in the G League before finding a bench role on the Toronto Raptors this season.
Jontay became infamous Wednesday when an NBA investigation ruled that he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, limited his own participation in games for betting purposes and bet on NBA games.
The most infamous examples of Porter's violations were remarkably obvious. DraftKings noticed that in two days, the two largest winning bets were on unders for Porter, a player who rarely saw betting action. In those games, Porter left the court early claiming an injury and then an illness.
With one brother banned from the NBA and another headed to prison, Michael Jr. is set to begin the Nuggets' title defense on Saturday against the Los Angeles Lakers.
