FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – A man accused of stabbing another man before running an SUV off the road in a fatal crash was sentenced Friday to no more than three years in prison.

On Jan. 17, 2021, a passenger in a car- later identified as 38-year-old Robert Allen Koenig Jr.- called 911 saying he had been stabbed, according to court documents.

Shortly after that, the car crashed on Washington Boulevard in downtown Fort Wayne. Emergency crews found the car’s passenger side wrapped around a tree with two men pinned inside, court documents said.

Koenig was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver- Albert “Rich” Eccard- was taken to the hospital with a broken neck, a broken back and several broken ribs.

Eccard told officers in court documents a man named 46-year-old Richard Schlatter was jealous of his relationship with his mother and also angry over something to do with the car, which Schlatter’s mother sold to Eccard.

When Eccard and Koenig went to a home to pick up the car that fateful day, Schlatter was there and a fight broke out with Koenig, court documents said.

In the months after the crash, Schlatter was arrested multiple times for invasion of privacy, public indecency and battery and served some time in the Allen County Jail before a warrant was issued for his arrest related to this case. 

As part of a plea deal with Allen County Prosecutors, the sentence for charges of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious or moderate bodily injury will be served at the same time. On those counts, the judge sentenced Schlatter to six years with three years suspended. The judge dismissed a charge of driving with a suspended license.

Schlatter’s sentencing comes with 160 days of jail credit, and an order for the first year of the sentence to be served in Community Corrections, according to the court documents.