A Louisiana man was sentenced for causing a 2021 head-on collision on Evans City Road in Forward Township that left a LifeFlight nurse and her husband with life-altering injuries.

State police filed 11 charges against Chase D. Cooper, 31, of South Crowley, in connection with a crash that left Janet and Timothy Harris, of Wexford, who both worked in emergency medicine, with severe injuries.

Details of the crash and its ramifications brought Butler County Common Pleas Judge Joseph Kubit to tears during a victim impact statement read at a hearing Wednesday, July 9, where he sentenced Cooper to serve 6 to 12 months in prison.

Janet Harris cried and moaned from her wheelchair in the gallery of the courtroom as her husband read his statement.

Timothy Harris told the court his wife was a flight nurse on LifeFlight and he also worked in emergency medicine before the crash.

He said the crash left his wife with brain injuries and completely dependent on others for daily care. She can’t walk and has to be pushed in a wheelchair, can’t talk or use her hands, and has memory loss, he said.

He said he and his wife were on ventilators for weeks after the crash, and neither of them are able to work. He said she used to oversee a LifeFlight team.

“She was a flight nurse who now sits silently in a lift chair. She can’t use a remote. She can’t stand on her own,” Harris said. “I struggle to walk up steps.”

Harris said his wife used to be the sun and “the world rotated around her.” Now, she chokes while eating and can’t speak with her children, he said.

The couple’s oldest son, Benjamin, who temporarily care for his parents following the crash, also provided an impact statement. A family friend read it to the court on his behalf. He wrote that he used to talk frequently with his mother, but used flash cards to communicate with her after the crash.

In addition, he said his father had to have a metal rod in his femur replaced.

The statements were read facing a TV screen to communicate with Cooper, who was in the county prison and participated remotely in the sentencing hearing.

Cooper, who has been held in jail on $50,000 bail since Jan. 2 this year, apologized to the Harrises and said he regrets the crash every day. He pleaded guilty to two felony charges of aggravated assault by vehicle.

“You have changed the lives of many irresponsibly,” Kubit said to Cooper after imposing the sentence.

Cooper’s prison sentence of 6 to 12 months in prison will be followed by 60 months of probation and the judge also sentenced him to pay $2,000 in fines and complete 200 hours of community service.

The judge told Cooper he hopes he recognizes the effect of his actions, and that lives can be changed in a fraction of second due to negligence or a lapse in judgment.