(July 24, 2008)-- Douglas Howard Church, 26, of West who pleaded guilty Monday to intoxication manslaughter and three counts of intoxication assault in a 2006 accident that killed Debbie French, 27, and left her three children critically injured was sentenced to prison late Thursday afternoon.

Jurors sentenced Church to 20 years in prison for intoxication manslaughter and 10 in prison years on one intoxication assault count.

They also sentenced him to five years probation on each of the other two intoxication assault counts.

The judge ruled that the sentences would be served consecutively.

The prosecution was seeking the maximum sentence on all charges, which would have totaled 50 years in prison.

Church asked for probation.

He testified late Thursday morning and told jurors that he remembered trying to pass another vehicle in a no-passing zone.

He said when he saw French’s truck he wasn’t able to get back into his lane because the driver of the vehicle next to him hit the brakes.

He said he swerved to the left toward a ditch, which was the same direction in which French steered.

He testified that he didn’t remember the crash, but said he does remember a glare of lights and the loud noise.

He said his first call to 911 was routed to a Hill County dispatcher.

He called his wife to tell her about the accident and called 911 two more times, he said.

He testified that he tossed away an open beer can that was in his truck, but when questioned by prosecutors, said he couldn’t say why.

He told jurors he knows there is nothing he can do to undo what happened that night, but said he feels he has changed.

Earlier Thursday, Church’s parents, Jack and Tina Church, testified about the impact of the death of another of their sons in an alcohol-related accident in 2000.

Robert Church was killed in 2000 in a one-vehicle accident at the age of 20 after a night of Labor Day weekend beer drinking.

He was found dead in his pickup, which was upside down in the water in a deep culvert.

Church’s parents said Robert’s death devastated Douglas, who ended up charged with DWI, for which he was sentenced to probation.

Jack Church said he later learned Douglas was using methamphetamine and said he offered to get him into counseling.

When that didn’t work, he testified, he tried a tough love approach.

Church’s parents testified that eventually Douglas got things together and went to Texas State Technical College to learn to become a welder.

He later married his high school sweetheart, they said.

Jurors also listened to recordings of the 911 calls Church placed after the deadly accident, as he was transferred from one dispatcher to another.

Calls to the EMS dispatcher produced a busy signal.

Church appeared shaken as he listened to the recordings, in which he sounded frustrated and eventually panicked, telling dispatchers an ambulance was needed immediately.

His parents testified they believe he would be a good candidate for probation.

Jack Church, who’s an account executive at KWTX, said there is no way to make up fully for the death of Debbie French, but said if Douglas were to receive probation and be ordered to speak to students and other programs, it would better serve the public.

Prosecutors rested their case late Wednesday afternoon after a day-and-a-half of testimony.

Their final witness was Alan French, whose wife Debbie died when a truck driven by Church veered into her lane and struck the truck in which she and her children were riding head on.

He testified that his son, daughter and stepdaughter, who survived the crash, have lasting physical and emotional scars as prosecutors wrapped up their case in the sentencing trial

He said his stepdaughter had to be institutionalized because of the trauma of the accident and loss of her mother.

He said she now lives with her father.

He testified that his son and daughter still have physical problems stemming from the accident and he said that both remain fearful that something else bad will happen.

Prosecutors earlier questioned the Dallas medical examiner who performed the autopsy on French.

She said French she sustained the worst injuries possible in a vehicle accident and testified that her injuries would have been worse only if a train or an 18-wheeler had hit her.

Prosecutors also presented testimony from state troopers involved in Church’s arrest in 2002 when he pulled over for not coming to a full stop at a stop sign.

The troopers testified they found a rifle with a spotlight in the front seat of Church’s truck as well as a loaded 9 mm pistol and an additional clip loaded with 12 rounds.

They also testified they caught him pulling two crack pipes out of his pocket as he sat in a patrol car.

On Tuesday, a paramedic who testified about the accident said,” This is the worst call I’ve ever been on.”

Jurors watched dash-cam video from the patrol car of a state trooper who responded to the accident that showed the trooper talking to Church about the crash.

When the trooper asked Church if he had been drinking, he first answered, “No.”

But later he admitted to drinking beer.

As the two talked, a 5-year-old who was trapped in the smashed red pickup truck could be heard screaming in the background.

Debbie French’s now 11-year-old son, who survived the accident, later testified about how he tried to wake his mother up after the head-on crash.

As the boy testified, Church was visibly distraught.

He could be seen crying as French's son stepped down from the witness chair.

(Adam Fox contributed to this story)