Today, a Palm Beach County judge sentenced former Riviera Beach Police officer Carl Johnson to 18.5 years in prison following his April 23 conviction on two counts of vehicular homicide, State Attorney Alexcia Cox announces.

At the time of the crash, Johnson was on duty and driving his marked patrol car while traveling 94 mph — nearly three times the posted speed limit of 35 mph and without its lights and siren activated — before colliding with the victims’ car at a Riviera Beach intersection.

The 43-year-old driver and his 29-year-old fiancée died as a result of the crash, which occurred on June 18, 2023.

In her sentencing memorandum, Assistant State Attorney Francine Edwards, Chief of the Traffic Homicide Unit, wrote: “The Defendant’s actions are the sole reason for the death of the victims in this case. The Defendant’s reckless behavior when he was tasked with protecting the community fell so short of what was required that only a substantial sentence in the Department of Corrections would be just.”