DRUNK DRIVER GETS 6 MONTHS FOR CRASH THAT KILLED FLORIDA POLICE OFFICER

A drunk driver, who hit and killed a Longwood police officer on I-4, will go to jail for six months. The crash happened last July after someone threw a lawn chair into the middle of the interstate in Deltona. The maximum sentence 20-year-old Dwayne Love could have faced was a year. Prosecutors only charged Love with DUI and driving while his license was suspended, but not for the death of the police officer that he hit and killed.

Deputies led Love away in handcuffs Tuesday, but it may not be for nearly as long as some people hoped. He received a sentenced of six months for driving drunk when Love hit and killed Longwood Police Sergeant Carl Strohsal on I-4 last July.

"When he died that night, it took part of the family with him. I can't even begin to tell you how devastating it is to have lost him," said Carol Strohsal, the victim's wife. The prosecution called Carol Strohsal, the officer's wife of 37 years, to the stand to try to convince the judge to give Love the maximum sentence of one year, plus 60 days in jail.

In July, Strohsal had just crashed his own car trying to avoid a plastic lawn chair thrown into the middle of the interstate when he got out and was hit. Even though Love was drunk and driving without a license because of a previous DUI, he said he couldn't see Strohsal standing in the roadway until it was too late.

"I wasn't supposed to be driving. I'm truly sorry and I wish that the people who put the chair there wasn't trying to play no prank. You don't put chairs on the highway. I'm sorry," Love said in court.

The Longwood police chief told Eyewitness News he is frustrated by Tuesday's sentence and said he can now empathize with other victims who feel the system didn't work for them.