[chris]

A Myrtle Beach, South Carolina man was sentenced to 23 years in prison after police said he stabbed his girlfriend, fled the scene and caused a crash that killed Cheryl Byrd, 53, of Pawleys Island.

Johnny Samuel Foster, then 28, was accused of stabbing 30-year-old Stephanie Bennett during a domestic dispute at a home on Brown Pelican Drive on March 1, 2010, according to Myrtle Beach police. A neighbor, Gene Sparkman, told WMBF News he watched from his bedroom window as Foster swung a knife at Bennett several times.

Officers who responded found Bennett on the ground with a stab wound to her stomach. She was hospitalized and released the next day.

Police said Foster spotted the arriving officers, struck one with his vehicle's side mirror and fled alone in a sport utility vehicle, leaving Bennett behind. He drove onto U.S. 501 at high speed and slammed into the passenger side of Byrd's car at the intersection with Seaboard Street. Byrd died at the scene.

An Horry County grand jury indicted Foster in August 2010 on charges including kidnapping, assault and battery with intent to kill, felony DUI resulting in death and felony DUI resulting in great bodily injury. He was held at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center on $500,000 bond.

Foster, by then 30, pleaded guilty to seven counts in January 2012. Circuit Court Judge Edward Cottingham sentenced him to 23 years in prison. Byrd's husband of 20 years, David Byrd, told WMBF News, "He took my wife, my angel. God is the judge on him. I am not the judge."