LAPORTE — A man who was on fentanyl when he caused a New Prairie school bus collision that injured several junior varsity baseball players and coaches has been sentenced to nine years in prison.
Shawn Akison, 42, of Romeoville, Illinois was also ordered to serve three years on probation and had his driver’s license suspended for two years.
The sentencing April 29 in LaPorte Circuit Court followed the terms of a guilty plea convicting him of Level 4 felony operating while intoxicated causing catatrophic injury and Level 5 felony operating while intoxicated causing serious bodily injury.
Eight years of his prison sentence was for the injuries suffered by 17-year-Lucas Bradshaw, who spent 54 days in a coma with a brain injury.
Bradshaw returned home about four months after the crash and was in the courtroom with his parents for the sentencing.
He’s able to walk, talk and feed himself again following 8 to 10 hours a day of intensive therapy, which has since been scaled back to mostly once a week, his aunt, Brooklyn Mrozinski, told the packed courtroom.
Still, Lucas was once capable of demanding chores like running a planter and helping to raise livestock on his family’s 1,500-acre farm now needs help with daily tasks, something he might require for the rest of his life, his aunt told the court.
She asked Judge Julianne Havens to consider the lifelong impact of the crash on Lucas and members of his family in deciding whether to accept the plea agreement.
“Accountability matters,” she said.
Bradshaw’s mother, Kelley, told the courtroom through tears that no parent should feel “so helpless” as she felt while seeing her son for the first time in the intensive care unit hooked up to nearly a dozen tubes and wondering if he would survive.
She said one of her son’s biggest goals now is to drive again before looking at Akison and telling him “today, you will face the consequences of your actions.”
Akison on May 8 of last year was behind the wheel of a box truck when he fled from a police officer in St. Joseph County trying to pull him over for erratic driving.
Several minutes later, police said, Akison hit at a high speed the back end of a mini-bus stopped for a traffic light on U.S. 20 at Fail Road just north of LaPorte.
Bradshaw was ejected from the bus, which was pushed into another mini-bus carrying the rest of the team on its way to a game.
Assistant Coach and school board member Rich Shail spent nearly a week in the hospital with a fractured vertebrae in his back and other injuries, such as broken ribs.
After sentencing, Shail said he’s getting around pretty good now but he doesn’t quite have the stamina he once had physically and it takes him longer to do certain things.
He expressed mixed feelings about the sentence.
“I’m not in total agreement with it ,but I think it is fair,” he said. “I’m just glad it’s over with. Let’s move forward.”
Ryan Henrich said his son, Nick, was also ejected from the bus.
Henrich said his son planned to join the U.S. Navy after graduating this year but that’s no longer in his future since he had to have surgery on a broken ankle.
Nick also had to wear sunglasses for three months to prevent the many headaches he began having after the crash, Henrich said.
Henrich asked the judge to reject the plea agreement, feeling Akison deserves more punishment not just for the crash but for having numerous past run-ins with the law.
According to court records, Akison has nine prior felony convictions and 12 prior misdemeanor convictions mostly in Illinois, most of them drug-related.
“I’m a forgiving man. I do believe in second chances,” Henrich said. “But, I feel, due to his prior convictions, he should not be given leniency.”
Akison’s daughter, Katie Burch, described her father as having compassion for others and raising her younger siblings now without their mother.
She also said her father was a major factor in her now having a career in the medical industry.
“I truly believe he has the ability to change and is mourning,” she said.
Later, just prior to sentencing, Akison said he is a caring and helpful person even though it doesn’t seem that way.
Akison also apologized to the victims, especially Bradshaw, along with their families for the pain and suffering he brought to their lives.
“I understand the anger and I just want to say I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ll continue to pray like I have every day.”
Judge Havens told Akison he was given prior chances to learn how to make better decisions without serving much, if any, prison time.
Akison will be eligible to petition for a reduced sentence but not until after he completes substance abuse programs while incarcerated, she said.
“If you don’t start now, you’ll never change,” she said. “I’m hoping prison will be what helps you change.”
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Prison sentence for man who caused bad New Prairie baseball bus crash
Reporting by Stan Maddux, Special to The Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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