CHARDON — An Amish taxi driver from Trumbull County whose license was suspended when he hit and killed a Middlefield motorcyclist in October recently received the maximum 18-month prison sentence for vehicular homicide in Geauga County Common Pleas Court.

Matthew Claar, 48, of Eagle Creek Road, had three active license suspensions and 35 total lifetime license suspensions at the time of the crash, according to prosecutors. Claar pleaded no contest to the fourth-degree felony on Dec. 22.

The victim, Joseph “Joey” Plotts, was a graduate of Cardinal High School, and served as a firefighter and EMT for the Middlefield Volunteer Fire Department, according to his online obituary.

Plotts was hit from behind and killed on Oct. 4 just after 11 a.m. on Route 528, as he was about to turn his Honda Gold Wing motorcycle onto Nauvoo Road, a quarter-mile from his Middlefield Township home, according to a crash report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Claar has been in trouble with the law since he was a juvenile, and was in prison from 2019 to 2024. In a court document, prosecutors detailed Claar’s criminal record dating back to 1996. The charges, most often in Ravenna, Warren and Newton Falls, included disorderly conduct, aggravated assault, aggravated menacing, petty theft, criminal trespassing, operating a vehicle while intoxicated, domestic violence, littering and driving under suspension.