A Butler County woman who admitted Monday to causing a crash last year that killed a school coach and left his pregnant wife in a coma will avoid significant jail time, but she won't be able to avoid reminders of the losses she caused.
Under terms of a plea agreement, Jennifer Langston, 27, of Star Grille Road, Cabot, would serve only a month in jail but be required to place flowers on the grave of Glenn Clark, of Saxonburg, every June 15 -- the anniversary of the fatal wreck -- for five years.
Other terms are that Langston write letters of apology to the families of Glenn Clark and his wife, Annette, and to the Mars Area School District, where Glenn Clark taught and coached wrestling. Langston also would have to perform community service involving public speeches and work with victims of vehicle crashes, and she would not be allowed to drink alcohol or enter bars.
The judge will decide at Langston's sentencing whether she also will be required to post a picture of the Clarks on her jail cell wall and, after she is released, to carry the photo in her wallet for five years.
Relatives of the victims, while disappointed with the brief jail time, helped write other terms of the sentencing.
Langston pleaded guilty to charges of homicide by motor vehicle, recklessly endangering another person, reckless driving and driving at an unsafe speed. Langston had faced a more serious charge of homicide by motor vehicle while driving under the influence.
Butler County District Attorney Tim McCune recommended she be sentenced to one month in the Butler County Jail, six months confined to her home under electronic monitoring and five years' probation. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Police said Langston admitted she was drinking before the accident along Neupert Road in Jefferson Township, Butler County, and that she was talking on her cell phone when she crossed the center line and hit the Clarks' vehicle head-on.
Rosellen Moller, Glenn Clark's mother, said families of the crash victims worked closely with the District Attorney's Office to craft the requirements of the plea agreement.
"We want her to get it -- what exactly she did," Moller said. "It somehow makes it a little better."
She said family members had hoped to require Langston to visit Annette Clark, who remains in a coma, but were unable to get that provision in the final agreement.
As part of the agreement, McCune said his office will not file additional charges against Langston if Annette Clark dies.
Glenn Clark's sister, Diane Clark, said doctors do not think Annette Clark will ever emerge from her coma.
Moller said the short span of jail time recommended by McCune is a "slap on the wrist," but "jail time won't bring the kids (Glenn and Annette Clark) back."
The Clarks' story garnered national attention when their child -- Michael -- was delivered by Caesarian section on Nov. 22, while his mother was in a coma.
Moller said the baby -- who is being raised by Annette Clark's sister, Michelle Phillips, and Phillips' husband, Matthew -- serves as a reminder of his parents and an inspiration to their families.
"You look at him, and you see Annette's red hair ... you see his Dad's smile," she said. "He's alive. He keeps us going"
McCune said requiring the defendant to recognize the victim with memorials is a first for Butler County.
"It's something that we intend to do more often," he said.
McCune said although Langston's blood-alcohol content when she was tested about an hour and 45 minutes after the crash was 0.11 percent, his staff thought they might have difficulty proving that Langston was drunk at the time of the wreck. The legal limit is 0.10 percent.
He said Langston's attorney could have used the "chug and drive defense," in which the attorney argues that the defendant's blood-alcohol content at the time of the crash was lower than when she was tested because she had consumed alcohol shortly before the accident and it had not yet entered her blood stream when the crash occurred.
McCune said changes to Pennsylvania's drunken-driving law that would invalidate such a defense are under consideration.
