Joel Newton Brewer, who had pleaded guilty to felony death by motor vehicle for a January 2023 accident at what is now Fort Liberty, N.C., was sentenced to eight years in prison March 5, 2024 in federal district court in Raleigh. (File photo)

A North Carolina man who killed a mother while driving drunk on one of the largest Army bases in the U.S. was sentenced this week to eight years in prison, according to prosecutors.

Joel Newton Brewer, 34, had pleaded guilty in federal district court in Raleigh to felony death by motor vehicle for causing a Jan. 3, 2023 collision at Fort Liberty, N.C., court documents said.

He was driving 89 mph in a 55 mph zone at what was then known as Fort Bragg, a Justice Department statement Wednesday said.

Brewer crossed the center line on Plank Road and struck another vehicle, a police report submitted to the court said. The other driver, an unidentified woman, was thrown from the vehicle and “partially decapitated,” prosecutors said.

She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her 1-year-old child had life-threatening injuries from the crash but survived, the police report said.

Plank Road is prone to high speeds and fatal accidents because drivers use it as a shortcut that trims several miles off a trip between Fayetteville and Southern Pines, local NBC affiliate WRAL reported in 2010.

Brewer’s blood alcohol content was measured at 0.15, higher than the North Carolina limit of 0.08, prosecutors said.

In letters provided to the court prior to sentencing, Brewer’s friends and family said he had been surrounded by substance abuse while growing up. He expressed remorse in a letter submitted to court: “I hate to think of that child growing up without their mother.”