Joy Hundley couldn’t be at the sentencing for the man who, while driving drunk, struck her in a St. Paul intersection as she was on her way home from work last September.

Instead, the 51-year-old was at a nursing home, where she’s expected to spend her foreseeable future after sustaining a traumatic brain injury in the accident.

The mother of four daughters — her youngest is 13 — slid under Gary Thomas Schmalz’ vehicle when he struck her at the corner of Fillmore and Robert streets about 9:20 p.m. Sept. 27, 2017.

The night shift employee at Comcast was about a block from work.

She was rushed to Regions Hospital, where she subsequently had to undergo seven surgeries to keep her alive. A portion of her skull was removed during one of the operations due to the magnitude of swelling in her brain.

These days, she needs help eating, changing her clothes and getting in and out of bed, according to court testimony provided by Hundley’s family during Schmalz’s sentencing hearing Thursday.

She struggles to string the right words together to form coherent sentences and fidgets with a quilt to keep her focus while family members try to engage with her.

“He has taken the life of a beautiful woman,” Hundley’s brother, Richard Gullickson, wrote in a statement read aloud in Ramsey County Court at the sentencing. “She may be breathing but she does not live as she lived before.”

“This incident has taken our mother away from us,” added Hundley’s daughter, Jennifer Hamborg, in her statement. “I can’t explain the pain I have seen in my sisters’ faces … How bad my heart hurts.”

Schmalz, who posted bail in the case, stood quietly in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt while Ramsey County District Judge Richard Kyle listened to the ways Hundley’s life had been altered.

The 64-year-old South Carolina man consumed about four beers and several shots of whiskey while fishing at Raspberry Island before hopping in his car the night of the accident.

He struck Hundley blocks later. He also admitted to having smoked marijuana that day when he pleaded guilty in December to one count of criminal vehicular operation causing great bodily harm while under the influence of alcohol.

He expressed regret when it was his turn to address the court Thursday.

“The vocabulary doesn’t contain the words to express my feelings,” he said. “I want to say I’m sorry. Words fail me.”

Due to Schmalz’s scant criminal history, Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines, and the fact that there were not aggravating factors in the case, he wasn’t eligible to receive a prison sentence for the offense, according to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

The presumptive sentence under such circumstances is a stayed sentence, which is what Schmalz ended up receiving at his hearing.

In addition to a five-year-stayed sentence, the judge did end up mandating that Schmalz serve another 31 days in jail in addition to the 79 days he already served in the case.

He also needs to stay sober, undergo mental health programming and abide by the other terms of his probation.

Kyle told Schmalz he hoped the extra jail time would persuade him to never make the same mistake. Schmalz was also convicted of a DWI about 15 years ago.

“This is a tragedy on many levels,” Kyle told him. “You will have to live with this for the rest of your life.”

When it was her turn to speak, Schmalz’s attorney, Katie Allen, told the court she wanted to clear up what she described as inaccuracies that were included in the criminal complaint about her client’s actions the day of the collision. Related Articles St. Paul PD highlights surveillance photos of looting suspects, seeks tips

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Schmalz did exactly as he should have after the accident, Allen said. He got out of his car, went to the victim to check on her condition, and then waited nearby for the authorities to arrive.

While some witnesses at the scene suggested he should have moved his car, Allen argued that he kept it in place to aid the authorities’ investigation.

She added that the former member of the United States Navy also admitted what he did immediately, cooperated with police, and has consistently shown remorse.