A Gary man avoided prison in a plea deal for a drunken head-on crash on a highway ramp.
John Blackwell III, 30, formerly of Hobart, pleaded guilty in March to causing serious bodily injury when operating a vehicle, a Level 5 felony.
Judge Natalie Bokota sentenced him Wednesday to two years in the Lake County Community Corrections program, one year on probation and ordered him to pay $40,000 in restitution.
Blackwell was driving on the ramp for some time in the wrong direction, Deputy Prosecutor Lindsay Lanham said Wednesday. At the time, he was on bond for an operating while intoxicated case in Hobart city court.
The woman was left injured, losing her job and apartment after the crash, lawyers said.
Defense lawyer Russell Brown said his client had made “tremendous progress” over time and had no ankle monitor violations.
Blackwell apologized in court and said he understood “the gravity” of what happened, but couldn’t be summed up by “one bad decision.”
Bokota told Blackwell, a waiter, that probation could help him get a better-paying job.
Indiana State Police responded at 3:39 a.m. Feb. 13, 2023 for a head-on crash at I-65 north on the I-80/94 east exit ramp.
Blackwell was driving the wrong way on the exit ramp, according to the affidavit.
His Dodge Dart hit a black Impala that got rear-ended by a red Nissan Sentra.
The woman in an Impala said she was on the ramp to I-80/94 when she saw a pair of headlights coming “straight” at her. She swerved right and the other car followed her and slammed head-on into her.
The woman was taken to the hospital, then a Chicago hospital with a fractured leg and two fractured ankles. She also had a bruised chest, lungs and a chest hematoma, or bleeding.
The man in the Sentra was not hurt.