An Ohio man whose moving YouTube confession to killing a man while drunk driving made headlines has stunned a judge by pleading not guilty to the crime, ABC News reports.
Matthew Cordle, 22, said in the video that he would plead guilty and take total responsibility for killing a man named Vincent Canzani while drunk driving in June. His lawyers decided to change his plea at the 11th hour, Judge Julie Lynch told ABC News.
"Everything was going to be guilty," she told ABC. "I'm somewhat incensed by somebody who isn't forthright with the court."
Cordle's lawyers told ABC that they were just entering not guilty as an initial plea and that they'd eventually change it to guilty. Lynch, however, told ABC she thinks defense lawyers got scared when she said she didn't know how she'd sentence Cordle — who could go to prison for as long as 8 years.
It's possible Cordle will eventually change his plea as part of a deal with prosecutors for a relatively lenient sentence.
Cordle's confessional YouTube video was made as a promo for a startup called Because I Said I Would, which promotes itself as "a social movement dedicated to bettering humanity through the power of a promise."
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