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Seattle man gets four years in crash that killed JT grad

A Seattle man who caused a fiery crash that killed a Jim Thorpe high school graduate in 2011 will serve four years behind bars.

According to theSeattle Times, on Monday, King County Superior Court Judge Douglass North ignored a plea deal for Daniel Ray Habeeb, who was charged with vehicular homicide and vehicular assault for the deaths of Laura Beth Sheard and her boyfriend KristopherMartin. North sentenced Habeeb to serve themaximum penalty under Washington law.Charges stem from a November 2011 crash where Habeeb ran a red light while traveling nearly 90 mph and slammed into the rear of a vehicle in which Sheard and Martin were in. The crash caused the vehicle to burst into flames, killing both Sheard and Martin, and injuring an11-year-old traveling in Habeeb's vehicle.Prior to being sentenced, Habeeb entered an Alford plea, which admits that a jury would likely find the defendant guilt of the crime. He already served 714 days in the King County Jail.Habeeb also pleadednot guilty by reason of insanity to a second count of vehicular homicide, the Seattle Times reports.His reason was becausehe suffered from anundiagnosed temporal lobe epilepsy at the time of the crash.North decided that the plea deal, which would have released Habeeb on Monday with credit for time served, should not be enforced because Habeeb had killed another woman in a similar type crash in January 2009.Habeeb will now serve 48 months with credit for the time already spent in prison. He must also follow the terms of the plea agreement after he is released in two years, including never driving again. He also cannot change his medications or any mental health treatment provider without court approval, the Seattle Times reports.He will be supervised by the Washington Department of Corrections' Special Needs Unit for the rest of his life as a result of pleading not guilty by reason of insanity to another count of vehicular homicide, which he was acquitted of that charge.Sheard was 26 at the time of the crash and living in Seattle with Martin while working as a PhD candidate in the department of pharmacology at the University of Washington.She was the daughter of Eugene E. and Carol (Eckard) Sheard of Jim Thorpe.She was a 2003graduate of Jim Thorpe Area High School; and a 2007 graduate fromMuhlenberg College, where she graduated summa cum laude with a bachelorof science in neuroscience.