A judge sentenced Chambers to spend 12 and a half years in prison. He was facing a possible maximum sentence of 16 and a half years for the charges, said Assistant Clark County Prosecutor Ryan Saunders.
Part of Chambers’ sentence is that his driver’s license will be suspended for life.
Chambers' blood-alcohol level was almost three times the legal limit for driving at the time of the head-on crash in October 2014, according to court records.
Speed was also a factor in the crash that killed 65-year-old Richard Gruber of Mad River Township and his granddaughter Sophia Gruber, 12, according to a State Highway Patrol accident report.
Brinda Gruber and her younger granddaughter Olivia survived the crash. In court Tuesday, Brinda Gruber spoke to Chambers for the first time since the accident.
“Your biggest punishment should be knowing and feeling the tears and pain you’ve brought upon my family and your own,” she said.
Olivia Gruber suffered broken bones in her face from the crash. She has healed physically but has seen a counselor since her sister and grandfather died.
The granddaughters lived full-time with their grandfather, who has custody of the children, Brinda Gruber said.
“I can’t sleep,” Brinda Gruber said of the pain she’s had since the crash.
The family forgives Chambers, she said, but will never forget the tragedy he brought on their family.
“I watched my husband die before me and my granddaughter’s little soul leave her,” Brinda Gruber said.
The family was returning home from the Apple Butter Festival in Enon when Chambers slammed his SUV into the back of their car as they waited to turn left onto South Tecumseh Road.
Chambers was driving on a suspended license. In the early 2000s, the Springfield man was convicted of a previous OVI charge. Prosecutors said Chambers never returned to court after that conviction for his sentencing, and a warrant for his arrest was issued, but he was never arrested before the fatal crash.
He served six months in jail after the crash for that OVI charge.
At the scene in 2014, witnesses reported Chambers was combative with the first drivers who stopped to help at the scene, Saunders said.
“There’s multiple witness statements that say he was walking away from the scene at the time of the crash,” the assistant prosecutor said.
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