Drunk driver who killed two gets 18-36 years

In the mornings, Maggie Hannagan said, she wakes up the same way she went to sleep: crying. Often, nightmares wake her before the sun rises.

Her husband, Paul, described talking to their two children as he looks at their photographs or cradles the boxes holding their ashes.

And through a prison phone, Thomas Muir recites passages from the Book of James with his cousin, hoping to find a way to forgiveness, the cousin said.

On Thursday, about 200 people gathered in a Chester County courtroom to hear the Hannagan and Muir stories: how their lives have changed since Muir, with a blood-alcohol level twice the legal definition of drunken driving, charged his vehicle up a hill on Route 100 in Exton and plowed it into a van carrying the Hannagans, their son and daughter, and two relatives.

Miles Hannagan, 19, and Charlotte, 16, died in the Feb. 14 crash.

At the end of a 31/2-hour hearing, Judge Patrick Carmody told Muir, 26, of Media, that his crime was "as bad as it gets" and sentenced him to 18 to 36 years in prison.

The sentence was not the maximum term of 22 to 44 years sought by the Hannagans, of Downingtown, and nine of their friends who addressed the judge.

"I have been given a life sentence of pain by this man," Paul Hannagan said.

Muir, through tears, said he wished he had died that night instead of his victims.

"If I could take their place, I would," he told the Hannagans as his own relatives wept. "I would do it a thousand times over."

Miles and Charlotte Hannagan were described by tearful friends as hardworking and original, dedicated to helping others and so close as siblings that they often finished each other's sentences.

Miles Hannagan, a second-year student at West Chester University, planned to be an optometrist. He was a volunteer EMT in West Chester and an Eagle Scout. Charlotte Hannagan, a junior at Downingtown High School West, loved metal music and was a leader in her French classes. She hoped to study in Sweden after high school.

Friends said the parents had a strong bond with their children and shared their interests. Paul Hannagan and his children played together in a bagpipe band.

The evening of Valentine's Day, the family was returning from a Celtic fair in Valley Forge, where the three had performed.

Muir, who had three previous arrests for drinking or drugs, was drunk and on a prescription drug as he climbed into his GMC truck.

Over the course of an hour, he drove so recklessly - swerving and running red lights - that a series of 911 calls came in. Police could not catch up to him.

It was beginning to snow as Muir went up a hill at Route 100 and Ship Road. He was going 98 m.p.h. in a 40 m.p.h. zone, investigators determined. He was also sending and receiving text messages.

When his truck slammed into the van, Charlotte and Miles Hannagan and the seats into which they were buckled were ripped from the van. They died on the road. Their parents went to the hospital with injuries. The relatives survived.

Muir, who worked in roofing, entered rehab in 2013 and more recently spent months in drug court.

"You've had numerous wake-up calls," the judge told him. "How can I say you're not going to re-offend?"

Muir's parents, both crying, apologized to the Hannagan family. Muir's friends and family said he was genuinely sorry and did not expect mercy. At the end, Carmody told him to use his life to help others struggling with addiction.

In a weeping courtroom, Muir said, "I will always seek to honor the lives of Miles and Charlotte by the way I live out the rest of mine."

Carmody said he had wrestled with his decision.

"I wish I could do better," he said. "God is going to be the ultimate judge."

jmcdaniel@philly.com

610-313-8205@McDanielJustine