Lorain man who killed 2 in 2024 chase and crash gets 24-to-28 years in prison (VIDEO)

This story has been edited to correct the spelling of Brandan Ryan's name in a photo caption. ELYRIA — Barring a successful appeal, Brandan Ryan will be close to retirement age before he gets out of prison for killing two people and severely injuring a third in a two-car crash he caused while fleeing police nearly a year ago. Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Chris Cook imposed a sentence of 24 to 28 years in prison on Ryan, 41, of Lorain, who sat in a wheelchair, a blue medical boot on his right foot, throughout an hourlong hearing Monday. Ryan cried and looked down at his hands as family members of two of his three victims, only one of whom survived, lashed out. The mother of one his victims called him "a scumbag." The victims' families and attorneys said in court that Ryan's decision to flee Elyria police on Aug. 22, 2024, killed two people, severely injured another man and may leave Ryan himself in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Ryan pleaded guilty in April to 22 felonies including aggravated vehicular homicide and aggravated vehicular assault that earned him mandatory prison time and a lifetime driver's license suspension. Ryan also admitted to multiple felony charges of failure to comply, multiple drug trafficking and drug possession charges, possession of criminal tools, misdemeanor charges of failure to comply, DUI and driving under suspension among other charges. Weeping and gasping for air, Ryan said he took full responsibility for what he did. "I'm guilty. My friends are gone because of me. And I gotta live with that," he said. "I really am not a bad guy ... I relapsed ... I tried and I tried ... I'm sorry to my family and the families of the victims." Defense attorney Matt Bobrowski said his client is a longtime addict whose criminal activity is tied to his addiction, but a person who is not beyond redemption. "The guilt of what happened is with him every day," Bobrowski said. Guilty plea sticks Cook imposed the sentence only after denying Ryan's request to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming ineffective assistance from his attorney, not enough time to go over the evidence against him and that he is illiterate. "I cannot read or write," Ryan told Cook — the opposite of what he told the judge during his April 24 plea hearing, Cook noted, ruling against Ryan. Opposing Ryan's motion, Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Paul Griffin said Ryan blamed everyone but himself for the crash, including as recently as July 10 when he was caught on a recorded jail call describing his dead passengers Tanner Smith and Meghan Incorvaia as "willing participants" in the chase that ended in their deaths. Cook agreed. Ryan's last-minute attempt to take the case to trial appeared to be "nothing more than a change of heart ... and a change of heart doesn't cut it," the judge said. Cook fined Ryan a mandatory $5,575 for drug trafficking and DUI, and ordered him to forfeit $581 in illegal drug profits to Elyria police. For violating his probation in four other felony cases in Common Pleas Court, Cook sentenced Ryan to serve 14½ years in prison concurrent to the 24- to 28- year prison term. Ryan said he plans to appeal. Even if that succeeds and the case is sent back to court, Cook said Ryan will still have to serve the 14½ years. The dead Fleeing Elyria police at more than 60 mph after an alleged drug deal on Aug. 22, Ryan headed north on state Route 57 / Lorain Boulevard, drove onto the left shoulder and ran a red light at Griswold Road. His Nissan Altima slammed into a Toyota Corolla driven by Robert Vormelker, killing Smith, 36, of Cleveland and Incorvaia, 36, of Wakeman and severely injuring Ryan and Vormelker. Meghan Incorvaia struggled with addiction most of her adult life, her mother Peggy Huryn said in court. "She tried many times to beat this awful disease. Now we'll never know if she could've. We'll also never know if she could've become the mother that she had always hoped she could be," Huryn said. Turning to Ryan, Huryn insulted him: "Sir, you are a coward," she said. "You didn't care about the other people that were in your car. All you cared about was yourself. And you still do, obviously it's obvious from what you said to the judge today," Huryn told Ryan. "You didn't care about the two people that were lying dead in the car when you were screaming for help for yourself. You deserve to spend the rest of your life in prison, and I hope that their deaths haunt you in your dreams every night." "I ask that you sentence this coward to the maximum sentence for each count against him today," Huryn said to Cook. "I ask for justice for my daughter. It won't bring her back to her children or her family, but it'll finally punish this scumbag for the crimes he's committed." Abigail Incorvaia, the eldest of Meghan Incorvaia's three children, told Cook her mother wasn't perfect but that she had good memories of her. Ryan took away the ability to make more of those memories, she said. "Knowing that this man cannot hurt anybody else will help ease the pain and help my family relive all of the happy memories that we have with her, rather than all this at once," Abigail Incorvaia said. No one spoke on Smith's behalf in court on Monday. The survivor Vormelker was running an errand in his fiancee's car, getting spaghetti noodles to go with dinner when Ryan ran the red light, hitting his car and critically injuring the father of two, a floor finisher and local musician known as "Runt." "I just want the maximum, whatever you can give" Ryan, Vormelker said. "I just want it fulfilled ... I want him in that jail." Vormelker's injuries were so bad he didn't go home for 131 days. He spent nearly a month in a medically induced coma, said his fiancee, Kristy Helbig. She said it's been 327 days since she slept next to him. Vormelker's recovery from a ruptured stomach and bowels, broken pelvis, broken hip and broken leg was difficult with many complications and continued physical therapy, he and his fiancee said. "I don't talk right, I don't do anything right anymore," Vormelker said through tears. "At least he (Ryan) can sit and ponder what he does while I try to come back and be a person." Helbig called Ryan a repeat offender with no respect for life. She said she didn't want revenge, just something from the court that will give her family and the families of the dead peace and healing. Ryan "nearly stole" Vormelker's life, she said. "This wasn't an accident, it was a tragedy years in the making." Robert Vormelker's older brother, Rick Vormelker, also asked for the maximum sentence allowed. Ryan, he said, refuses to learn from his mistakes and has gotten too many second chances. "How many more people does Brandan Ryan have to injure or kill before our legal system decides to put an end to it?" Rick Vormelker asked. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.