East Falmouth Man Pleads Guilty in 2011 Crash That Killed Two

An East Falmouth man was sentenced in Falmouth District Court on Tuesday for killing two people when he drove drunk in 2011.

Matthew Laughead, 24, was able to avoid jail time by pleading guilty, the Boston Herald reports.

He was sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence and one year of probation, according to the Herald.

Laughead plead guilty to two counts of motor vehicle homicide and one count of operating under the influence, the Cape Cod Times reports.

Laughead was the driver of a vehicle that crashed and killed two passengers on Oct. 30, 2011. The passengers were Laughead’s cousin Bryan Laughead, 38, and Jamie Duffany, 28.

On the night of the crash, Falmouth police and fire departments responded to a one-vehicle crash in the area of 371 Jones Road shortly after midnight. The car had been traveling on Jones Road when it fishtailed and hit a tree and a fence before coming to a stop on Dove Cottage Road.

Bryan Laughead and Duffany were pronounced dead at the scene. Laughead, the driver, was taken to a Boston-area hospital.

The charges against Laughead were filed in March 2012 after police and the accident restoration team finished a four-month investigation.

According to a police report released in court in May 2012, Laughead was able to speak for 15 minutes at the hospital regarding the crash. In his report, Officer Bryan Hazelton said he was able to smell a moderate stench of alcohol coming from Laughead’s mouth as he spoke, and that his body smelled of alcohol.

Police also received information since the day of the crash that Bryan, Matthew, and James had been at the drinking beers on the night of the crash. The bar manager also identified them as having been there that night.