The driver confronted and subdued by the North Texas mother he crashed into during a police chase has been sentenced to five years behind bars for evading arrest.
Artrai Alexander, 40, was charged with aggravated robbery and evading arrest after being accused of stealing a Dodge Challenger from a driver at a Dallas convenience store and touching off a wild chase across the city that ended in a crash in February 2015.
A jury found Alexander not guilty of the aggravated robbery charge but found him guilty of the evading arrest charge Thursday afternoon.
Alexander led police on a chase down residential streets, through parking lots and on Interstate 635 until the he tried unsuccessfully to squeeze between two vehicles stopped for a stoplight at a busy intersection.
Chopper 5 was overhead following the chase when police said Alexander slammed into the back of a minivan and an SUV at the intersection of Walnut Hill Lane and Abrams Road.
The driver of one of the vehicles, Jessica Liesmann, was recorded jumping out of her minivan and rushing over to the driver. She immediately slammed the car door into the driver's body and then grabbed him by the shirt before wrestling him to the ground. Moments later, police can be seen entering the frame and placing the driver, identified later as Alexander, into custody.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Alexander's trial began earlier this week. Liesmann took the stand Thursday, recalling when her van was hit and what took place afterward. She said she didn't know Alexander was involved in a police chase, but that she thought he was going to run and that he needed to be detained to be held accountable for the crash.
Video of the confrontation between the driver and the "mamabear" soon went viral after being shared on social media.
"I was just angry. I just lost my 4-year-old child on the second day of school, and to think of something else happening to one of my kids," said Liesmann, after the crash. "I just can't imagine. I'm just grateful, first of all, that he's OK, and second of all, that that guy is in jail."
After the crash Liesmann was given a new van by the Kidd Kraddick Show and Southwest Kia since hers was damaged and she had no way to get her kids to school.
In a jailhouse interview, Alexander apologized to Liesmann and her family after the crash.
“I apologize to them for this whole incident. I apologize and hope JT (referring to Leismann’s 13-year-old son, TJ) be OK and the other people that were injured as well,” said Alexander, from the Dallas County Jail in February 2015.
NBC 5's Kevin Young and Amanda Guerra contributed to this report.
