A 63-year-old man was sentenced today to 13 years in prison - the maximum - for driving recklessly and causing a crash that killed two pedestrians at a Downtown intersection. Terrance Trent of Whitehall was convicted last month of two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide in the deaths of Stephanie Fibelkorn, 21, and William Lewis, 58, and two counts of vehicular assault for two others who were injured in the crash.

Terrance Trent wept and whimpered, clutching a tissue to his face in a Franklin County courtroom, as he listened to anguished statements about what was lost when his reckless driving caused a crash that killed two pedestrians at a Downtown intersection.

He continued weeping during the Tuesday hearing as he told the families of the dead that he was "so sorry" about what happened to Stephanie Fibelkorn, 21, and Bill Lewis, 58.

"I've tried to understand what you're going through, I really have," he said.

Looking upward with his hands seemingly clenched in prayer, he wailed, "If I could die right now to bring them back, I'd gladly do it."

Common Pleas Judge David Young said he saw no genuine remorse from Trent, who was convicted last month of two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide for the deaths and two counts of vehicular assault for injuring two others in the crash on Dec. 12, 2014.

Young imposed the maximum sentence of 13 years in prison � five years for each death and 18 months for each of the injured � and suspended Trent's driver's license for life.

Fibelkorn's father was thankful for the maximum sentence and unmoved by Trent's tears.

"I was disheartened to see Mr. Trent crying today," Stephen Fibelkorn said after the hearing. "I find that he cries for himself and no one else. I don�t believe there�s been an ounce of remorse shown, other than for his own situation."

Trent, 63, was speeding west on East Broad Street in a pickup truck with a flat tire, running red lights and weaving through traffic, finally slamming the truck into a school bus at the busy intersection with High Street. The impact knocked the bus over the curb, killing the pedestrians and injuring the bus driver and the passenger in Trent's truck.

Trent testified during his trial that the passenger, his girlfriend, was to blame because she was striking him with a full can of soda as he drove, causing him to go into "panic mode" and not realize what he was doing.

Lewis was the chief mobility engineer for the city of Columbus, working to keep streets safe for drivers and pedestrians. Stephanie Fibelkorn was an Ohio State University engineering student working as an intern in his office. She dreamed of one day working as a Disney "imagineer," designing attractions for the company's amusement parks.

The two were walking to a morning meeting when they were struck. She died at the scene, and he died two weeks later at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center.

Fibelkorn's parents told the judge that they have sold their Downtown home to escape the continual reminders of the crash.

Mr. Fibelkorn called himself "a broken man, unable to contain my emotions."

Mary Fibelkorn said she misses her daughter "more than anyone can understand. I am reminded every day that she is no longer here with us, whether it be by seeing her friends moving on with their lives, finding her things still untouched, or when I am most vulnerable, finding myself reaching to call her, having forgotten all over again that she is gone."

Rhonda Lewis spoke about what the loss of her husband, a loving father, meant to her and their two children. She told the judge that Trent deserved a life sentence "for the destruction in our lives."

Defense attorney Steve Dehnart said his client has mental-health issues and that a maximum sentence "would achieve nothing but revenge."

Assistant Prosecutor Dan Cable told the judge that Trent's actions and lack of remorse cried out for the maximum.

"Mr. Trent still does not get it," he said.

Mr. Fibelkorn said afterward that the families "are saddened that the state of Ohio views this as a minor, five-year punishable offense for a death when other states treat it like a 30-year sentence like it should be."

jfutty@dispatch.com

@johnfutty