Courtesy Photo Clark

Gue will never forget three weeks later when he saw the bird feeder again. It was smashed and flattened in his sister's car.

Vivian Gaynor wasn't far from her Adamstown home when Benjamin W. Clark crashed his Subaru Impreza into her Toyota Avalon the afternoon of April 30 on Lilypons Road.

Clark was driving 134 mph, showing off to co-workers, when he hit Gaynor's car head-on, according to court testimony.

The 60-year-old wife, mother and grandmother died on impact.

Alcohol was not a factor in the crash.

"These days, I have a hard time going into Lowe's," Gue said Thursday in Frederick County Circuit Court. "I break into tears whenever I go by the birdfeeder display."

Gue was among Gaynor's family members who spoke before Judge John H. Tisdale sentenced Clark for vehicular manslaughter.

Clark, 29, of Silver Spring, broke down repeatedly Thursday as Gaynor's siblings and sons described how his reckless behavior tore their family apart.

"It looked as if a bomb had imploded the car," said Katrina Wise, Gaynor's sister. "We were picking up pieces of her car as if they were pieces of her life É we found her bracelet buried in the dirt."

A plea agreement reached between the prosecution and the defense meant that Clark's punishment was likely a foregone conclusion -- to spend 18 months of a 10-year sentence in the Frederick County Adult Detention Center. Until Thursday, Clark had no criminal record.

Upon release, Clark will be placed on three years of supervised probation. For the first 18 months, Clark will be confined to his home.

"This can't come close to helping this family heal," Assistant State's Attorney Kirsten N. Brown told Tisdale, before the family spoke.

Aware of the details of the plea agreement, Gaynor's family meted out their own justice with words as they read from prepared statements.

"Benjamin Clark did not think of anyone but himself," Gene Gaynor said. "He took away my mother. He took away my father's wife."

Clark rose to address the court and Gaynor's family, but her sons, Gene and Kevin, already had left the courtroom to avoid his apology. They chose not to return while he spoke.

"I allowed myself to be put into a bad situation," Clark said. "I am ashamed, humiliated and embarrassed as a result of my actions. I caused your family pain that was needless. I took from you something that was cherished. I've robbed you of sharing long, happy lives together."

Wise expressed disgust that Clark killed her only sister, "my mentor," by selfishly showing off to his coworkers in a car he had recently souped up.

"Street racing is becoming a major problem," Wise said. "If nothing is done, there will be much more bloodshed."

Gene Gaynor said family traditions have been irreversibly damaged by Clark's irresponsible actions.

"Benjamin Clark killed an innocent woman by speeding," he said, reading from his brother's statement.

"Instead of spending holidays with family at home, we spend them with mom at the cemetery."