First drunk boater sent to prison under tougher law prompted by Lake Norman death

A drunken boater at the North Carolina coast recently became the first person to be convicted under a tougher-penalty law prompted by a teenager’s death on Lake Norman.

Brunswick County resident Matthew Ferster was sentenced to up to 18 1/2 years in prison after being convicted in the deaths of three boaters in a collision on the Waccamaw River in 2020, according to an Oct. 17 news release by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

Ferster pleaded guilty to three counts of felony death by impaired boating, also known as Sheyenne’s Law, commission officials said.

The law is named in memory of Sheyenne Marshall, a 17-year-old from Concord who was killed by an impaired boater as she knee-boarded on Lake Norman in July 2015, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.

Then-Gov. Pat McCrory signed the measure into law in 2016. The new law raised the penalty for impaired boating that results in a death or serious injury from a misdemeanor to a felony.

“After learning that boating while impaired was only a Class 2 misdemeanor, Marshall’s family lobbied the N.C. General Assembly for stiffer penalties for impaired boating, and a year later the legislature passed ‘Sheyenne’s Law,’ commission officials said in the news release.

“When our daughter was killed, it was basically a $200 to $250 crime for someone that was drinking or impaired,” Sheyenne’s father, Kenneth Marshall, told Observer news partner WSOC.

“Hopefully, people will be educated about what it will cost them if they go out and drink and boat,” he said.

Sgt. Matt Criscoe of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission led the investigation into the triple-fatality collision at the coast. The investigation took three years and involved more than 20 local, state and federal agencies.

“Sheyenne’s Law is one more tool officers have to help keep the public safe while on the water,” Wildlife Resources officials said in the news release. “However, they would rather prevent incidents than punish offenders.

“They do this through proactive enforcement efforts, such as pre-launch boating safety inspections, active boat patrols” and “educational opportunities on and off the water, such as their annual boating safety campaigns.”