A Butler man was sentenced Thursday to serve 72 to 144 months in state prison and pay $8,250 in fines for a 2019 drunk-driving crash in Franklin Township that left him and his two passengers injured — one severely.

Michael Joseph Hilliard, 41, who was found guilty of nine charges in his jury trial in May, was sentenced by Common Pleas Court Judge Kelley Streib, who presided over the trial.

State police filed charges, including aggravated assault by vehicle while driving under the influence of alcohol, following the April 13, 2019, rollover crash on Old Route 422.

At his trial, Hilliard testified that he suffered a broken back and ribs in the crash, but he said he wasn’t the driver. He said he fell asleep in the back seat of his sport-utility vehicle after leaving a bar with the two other people, and didn’t know which of them drove.

Betty Jo McCandless-Meadows and Kenneth Kline testified that Hilliard drove after the trio left the Rock Ann Haven bar in Butler Township around closing time. All three were at another bar earlier, according to testimony.

Kline testified that he suffered a head injury and was limping when he went for help after the crash.

McCandless-Meadows testified at the trial, and, on Thursday, asked Streib to impose the maximum jail sentence.

She spoke with a stutter that she said is the result of a brain injury she suffered in the crash. She said she is on a list to receive a lung transplant, and might need stomach surgery.

During the trial, she said she spent three months in the hospital followed by six months in a rehabilitation facility receiving treatment for her injuries. Her injuries included brain swelling; two cranial fractures; 12 broken ribs; 10 broken vertebrae; a broken pelvis; a broken knee; and punctures or lacerations to her heart, lung, stomach, spleen, liver, kidney and intestines, she said.

McCandless-Meadows said Thursday that she made $90,000 a year working as a firefighter and medic, and separately in hospice care. She said she worked seven days a week for 16 years.

“I worked damn hard for it,” she said.

Since then, she said she has had to spend an inheritance from her grandparents to put food on the table for her and her children.

“My health has been destroyed,” McCandless-Meadows said.

She said not being able to help people anymore is the worst thing that happened to her as a result of the crash.

In addition, she said she is going to start a victim advocacy project called “No More.”

Hilliard did not speak during the sentencing hearing, but his attorney Joseph Kecskemethy asked Streib to consider the circumstances that resulted in all three people being in the vehicle together at the same time.

Hilliard was sentenced to serve 48 to 96 months in prison for the aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI charge. For his third offense of driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.02% or more, he was sentenced to consecutively serve 24 to 48 months in prison and fined $5,000.

He was given a concurrent prison sentence of 12 to 24 months and fined $500 for a DUI charge, which was his fifth DUI offense, according to assistant District Attorney Mark Lope. He was given a concurrent sentence of 24 to 48 months and fined $2,500 for DUI with a BAC of 0.16% or higher. He was fined $250 for a summary offense of careless driving, and given no other penalty for three other summary traffic offenses.