Driver Gets Prison Term In Traffic Death Relatives Of Accident Victim, Defendant Pack Courtroom

Nobody got what they wanted in the case of the State vs. Timothy Cooper at Monday’s sentencing.

Some wanted Cooper to relive the bloody horror visited upon his victims in the fatal car crash last March on Granite Hill.

Cooper’s friends and family, on the other hand, wanted mercy for Cooper, who they described as extremely remorseful for the death of 18-year-old Jessica Haller.

After an emotional, three-hour sentencing hearing, 1st District Court Judge James Michaud sentenced Cooper to three to seven years in prison, and suspended his driver’s license for three years following his release.

Cooper, who was 33 at the time of the accident, also will be ordered to pay restitution.

Cooper, who apologized to Haller’s family in tears just moments before, was led away in handcuffs, despite his attorney’s last-minute attempt to free him for an appeal or to set bail at an attainable level.

Michaud denied both requests.

Three sheriff’s deputies and three court bailiffs were on hand in case the large crowd became unruly. About 90 of Haller’s family and friends - identifiable by the red ribbons and buttons they wore - packed the Sandpoint Community Center, where the hearing was held because no courtroom could contain them all.

“This room could have been full if we’d known we were going to be here,” said Pauly Forshee of Spokane, the grandmother of Tony Davis, Haller’s boyfriend who was injured in the crash.

Cooper’s blood alcohol content was more than double the legal limit when he drove across the centerline of U.S. Highway 95 and careened into the car driven by Haller.

Injured in the crash were Haller’s mother, two sisters and boyfriend, as well as Cooper and Cooper’s 8-year-old son, neither of whom were wearing seat belts.

Haller was killed.

“How does it feel to know you slaughtered that girl?” Amanda Haller, 24, asked Cooper during her statement. “God did not take Jessica that night. God’s not a drunk idiot.”

Amanda Haller suffered a broken wrist and other injuries in the crash. Davis broke his back, which was repaired with four rods, eight screws and other hardware that never will be removed. Jessica’s mother, Deborah Wiemers, suffered a broken neck, collapsed lung, broken ribs, broken collarbone, and, as many others also confessed, a broken heart.

Wiemers brought a photo album to the bench to show Michaud, angrily stabbing at the photos for the benefit of the judge and attorneys.

“There’s Cooper’s car with a beer in it. I have a big picture I’ll show ya, Mom,” she said, glaring at Cooper’s mother, Judy Cooper, who sat teary-eyed in the front row of the community hall.

“There I am when I cleaned the blood off Jessica’s shoes,” she continued. “There I am with the halo screwed into my head.”

She also showed a photo of Haller’s school locker, forever memorialized for the popular Lakeland High School senior.

“She had her life planned neatly,” Wiemers said. “She chose not to drink alcohol. She lost friends because of her decision not to drink and drive.”

Davis also spoke angrily at Cooper, calling him a “loser” and “the dumbest person I’ve ever met.” During a short recess in the proceedings, Davis carried his sobbing little sister away.

Cooper’s supporters were outnumbered, but his parents and a friend took the stand on his behalf, shedding tears and asking for forgiveness.

“Tim is basically a good person,” said his father, Jim Cooper, who lives in Omaha, Neb. “He would never intentionally hurt anyone.”

His mother, Judy Cooper, said she cries herself to sleep most nights, thinking of Jessica Haller. But she also defended her son, and called everyone in the case a victim.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in this courtroom without sin, who hasn’t tripped up,” she said.

Deputy Prosecutor Roger Hanlon asked her if everyone’s a victim, then who’s responsible?

“Tim made choices that night that were the wrong choices,” his mother acknowledged. “That doesn’t mean I love him any less.”

Michaud sentenced Cooper to two years in each of the four counts of aggravated driving under the influence, and seven years for vehicular manslaughter, but ordered that they be served concurrently. That means that the longest prison term he can have is seven years.

Michaud said he took into account Cooper’s prior criminal driving record, which includes a prior driving while intoxicated conviction. But he did not consider six arrests for domestic assault in his decision, he said.

“It’s fortunate for you that the victims don’t impose the sentence,” he told Cooper before Cooper was hauled away.