Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Gets 2 Years for Manslaughter

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) -- A Nobel Prize-winning physicist from Florida State University will spend two years in prison. Seventy-four-year-old John Schrieffer was sentenced in Santa Maria, California for a 2004 car crash that killed a man and injured seven people.

Authorities say Schrieffer was driving more than 100 miles per hour when he crashed his Mercedes-Benz into a Toyota van. He pleaded no contest July 25th to felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Defense attorneys say their client fell asleep at the wheel. At the time of the crash, Schrieffer was driving on a suspended license.

Schrieffer has been chief scientist at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University since 1992.

©2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, or redistributed.