Jake Melhuish (pictured) was driving from the shoot on the edge of Exmoor
A 22-year-old shooting party guest has been jailed after he killed a friend in a car crash when he hit a tree while drunk on port and high on cocaine.
Jake Melhuish was driving from the shoot on the edge of Exmoor with 23-year-old father-to-be Trevor Coates in the passenger seat when his car veered off a country road and hit a tree.
Mr Coates was killed instantly and his girlfriend Chloe Gilbert has been left heartbroken by his death. Their daughter Ivy was born a month later and she has been left to raise the child as a single mother.
Both Melhuish and Mr Coates spent the day at a pre-Christmas shooting party near East Anstey, Devon, at which ten friends had port for breakfast before more port and beer with meals of pasty and cottage pie for lunch.
Some of the men, including Melhuish, also took cocaine and at the time of the crash at 5.21pm, the driver was just under twice the drink drive limit for alcohol.
The cocaine in his body had broken down by time he was tested five hours later, but he had nine times the safe level of the metabolite BZE.
The organisers of the shoot arranged designated drivers and the party was moving from one farmhouse to another when Melhuish decided it was too cramped as a back seat passenger and decided to get out and drive his own car.
Witnesses described him showing off as he left the farmyard with wheels spinning on the gravel and said his Volkswagen Bora was out of sight when he crashed a few miles away.
He lost control on a slight bend and crashed into two trees, one of which caused fatal head injuries to Mr Coates. His decision to drive was described as 'criminal stupidity' by a judge at Exeter Crown Court.
Victim Mr Coates was a popular player at Wiveliscombe Rugby Club who worked as an agricultural engineer and plumber. He and Chloe had just moved into a cottage at Winsford on Exmoor to prepare for the birth of their daughter.
She was praised for her dignity after she stood up to read out a victim statement which revealed she needed counselling and treatment to help her cope with the loss.
She had to move out of the house because she could not afford the rent without his income.
She said: 'Trevor was so excited about becoming a dad. We would often lie in bed and imagine our future with a little family of our own. He was the only person who truly understood me and supported me after the death of my father.
