'He was only going out for an hour - four years later I am still living in that hour after my son was mown down by a dangerous driver in Tipton'
The family of Darren Whitehouse said they can never forgive Carlton Betts for the act which killed him in Tipton, but welcomed the sentence handed down to him at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Darren Whitehouse died aged just 43, when Carlton Betts lost control of a stolen Nissan Infiniti which mounted the pavement in St Mark's Road in Tipton and struck him and a friend on February 27, 2021.
Carlton Betts was known to Darren.
The court heard a post mortem on Darren ruled he would have been killed 'almost instantly' and Betts drove off from the scene, later getting involved in an altercation at a nearby shop.
Darren and his mother Susan Timmins had been to the funeral of her first husband - Darren's father - just the day before the crash, She had also seen her second husband pass just a few months before.
Darren was caring for her full time and in a victim impact statement read out to the court she said his last words to her were that he was going out for an hour and that four years later, she was "still living in that hour."
Speaking outside court Susan said: "I was in the house literally 30 yards from where it happened and I heard it all.
"He said he was just going out for an hour to walk Toni's (his former partner's) dog and that was the last thing he did. I have lived with those words ever since.
"It was even harder because I had suffered two bereavements within a few months but nothing can ever be worse than losing a son especially in such awful circumstances.
"I can never forgive Carlton Betts, I have to admit I have had some bad thoughts and tried not to because I am not that type of person but I will never really come to terms with it."
Darren's brother Chris said they were satisfied with the sentence but found it hard to reconcile that Betts could just drive off at speed and '"leave him there to die."
He praised the community spirit in Tipton with people rallying round to support the family and the police for their investigation and support - £20,000 was raised for a reward for information about the driver of the car after the police investigation stalled for a year.
Chris said: "Carlton Betts and others in the car knew Darren and to think he just drove off and left him to die is hard to take. He didn't give himself up and didn't even turn up for his trial.
"It happened during Covid which were difficult times and I remember going to identify the body because we had to go one at a time. When I saw Darren I knew I had to protect my mum and not let her see it.
"She has been left empty, we all have but I would like to pay tribute to the community and friends who have supported the family over a long four years plus, the police as well have been very supportive after a few initial problems."
Jailing Betts, who had 28 convictions for 74 offences, many of them motoring crimes and many in his teenage years, Judge Simon Ward said: "It was only by luck that some of the other times you took cars and drove dangerously it didn't lead to someone being hurt or killed but that luck ran out in the case of Darren Whitehouse whose family have to live with a death sentence."
