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Leonard Cave, 61, a noted sculptor, died in the crash. The passenger in the vehicle, Carolyn Gipe, a choral teacher at Northwest High School and Cave’s fiancée, was critically injured and had to learn to walk again.

‘‘I resolve not to let this present darkness kill the goodness and beauty of Lenny that remains within me,” Gipe said during her 30-minute long victim impact statement in which she described their relationship and the impact of his death in loving, excruciating detail.

Cave’s death and Gipe’s injuries — she still walks with a cane, but sometimes uses a wheelchair — rattled the Northwest High School community. Signs about the dangers of drunken driving still hang throughout the school, eight months after the accident.

‘‘The school is still not fully recovered from the events, and every day there is another reminder,” choral parent coordinator Maggie Newcomer wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette. ‘‘The drama department has decided to dedicate all of their performances of their upcoming production of Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ to the memory of Mr. Cave and to Ms. Carolyn Gipe.”

Five choral music students, who said Gipe is like a mother to them, attended the sentencing. They talked about the accident’s impact, and how the death of Cave, an energetic teacher who connected with the hardest to reach students, reverberated around school.

‘‘You really have to view life and know that you can be gone at any moment,” said Ines Nassara, 15, a sophomore. ‘‘You have to treasure each moment.”

Jessica Brown, 16, agreed.

‘‘It also makes you think about things you do and how they can impact other people,” she said.

The stack of written victim impact statements nearly 3 inches deep that were sent to Frederick County Circuit Court Judge G. Edward Dwyer Jr. made it clear that Cave’s influence ran deep through the school, church and art communities to which he was devoted.

‘‘I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this many letters that are victim impact statements,” Dwyer said during the hearing. ‘‘Many are angry letters regarding the disposition of this case.”

The anger is a result of the charge — manslaughter — instead of murder. Current Maryland law regards killing someone as a result of drunken driving an unintentional act, meaning manslaughter. The maximum sentence for a vehicular manslaughter conviction is 10 years.

‘‘We hope that people who are angered by this will use their energy in another direction, such as changing the law,” Brown said.

Helms was driving a Dodge Ram pickup truck west on I-70 at the ramp to Route 355 when he lost control about 9:15 p.m., July 11. The truck struck the driver’s side of Cave’s Toyota Sienna minivan, police said.

During the sentencing, Helms’ attorney, Jack E. Blomquist, told Dwyer that the truck’s steering had a problem at the time of the accident.

Brown refuted the claim.

Then Helms, wearing a blue jail-issued jumpsuit, looked back at Cave’s family and friends and apologized.

‘‘I’m not going to ask you to forgive me,” he said. ‘‘Please do accept my apology.”

Dwyer then sentenced Helms to serve seven years in jail and three years’ probation. It is his first alcohol-related offense, Brown said. He was driving on a suspended Maryland license — for a vision violation — at the time of the accident, she said.

However, he was convicted in Florida for several offenses between 1986 and 1997, including larceny, burglary and battery, she said. In California, he has a 2002 controlled and dangerous substance conviction and a 2003 conviction for resisting arrest, she said.

After the sentencing, Cave’s loved ones gathered outside the courtroom.

‘‘You can’t bring my brother back ... I think the court respected the feelings and the reasoning of the family,” said Cave’s oldest brother Cecil Cave, of Winston Salem, N.C. ‘‘Our laws are going to have to get more serious and reflect drinking and driving and its impact.”

For Gipe, every day is a constant reminder that her love is gone. She calls Cave’s number every day to ‘‘hear the greeting on his voice mail.”