Christian W. Eshenbaugh was sentenced Thursday in Butler County Court for a crime he can’t remember.

Between the 2013 theft of about $30,000 worth of aluminum rims from a Middlesex Township salvage yard and sentence court, the Allegheny County man suffered traumatic brain injuries in a horrific vehicle accident.

Since that collision in November 2013 — which claimed the life of another person — Eshenbaugh’s attorney Stephen Misko says his client has changed dramatically.

Before the crash, Eshenbaugh was having some problems, finding trouble and committing crimes related to drug use, according to court records.

In the current case, Eshenbaugh admitted to investigators he took rims, 20 to 30 at a time, from Marshall’s Junk Yard on Browns Hill Road during a series of thefts over two months, court documents said.

In all, police said, the business alleges 2,057 rims with a value of $33,323 were stolen.

Eshenbaugh pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. Butler County Judge William Shaffer sentenced him to serve a year of probation and pay an amount of restitution to be determined later.

However, Misko said his client has now “turned his life 180 degrees.”

The rim thefts took place in June 2013, just months before Eshenbaugh was a passenger in a vehicle that drove into a tree on Warrendale Road.

Misko said the driver died, and Eshenbaugh was treated for weeks at a Pittsburgh hospital, then months in a rehabilitation facility.

“When he was first released he had the skills of a 10- or 11-year-old,” Misko said, noting that his client initially lost most of his memory but some of it is returning.

Eshenbaugh’s skills also now are returning, and he is employed by a contracting company owned by his mother and stepfather.

What’s not returning is the defendant’s former penchant for trouble.

“He is just a completely different person,” Misko said.