Ex-Levant man gets 18 months for manslaughter

MACHIAS – A 35-year-old former Levant man was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison after a jury in August found him guilty of manslaughter in a December 1997 car-truck collision that killed a 1-year-old child in Baileyville.

“I will never see my son grow up,” a tearful Michelle Wiley told the judge during sentencing Friday morning. Wiley’s son Jacob was killed in the accident.

Mark Deschaine was driving for Freightliner Corp. of Bangor on the morning of Dec. 17, 1997, when his 1995 panel truck struck two vehicles that were stopped behind a school bus in heavy fog on Route 1 in Baileyville.

The panel truck hit a Dodge sedan driven by Michelle Wiley, then 19, of Princeton, pinning her car under the front of the delivery truck. Wiley’s infant son, who was secured in a safety seat in the back of the vehicle, was killed in the 7:30 a.m. crash.

Maine State Police reconstructionists concluded that Deschaine was driving at least 64 mph in a 45-mph zone. The skid marks were 233 feet long, and the collision drove Wiley’s car into the vehicle in front of her, a 1992 Dodge Shadow driven by Susan Welch, then 32, of Princeton.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh showed Judge Kirk Studstrup the picture of a happy, smiling Jacob Wiley that was taken a short time before the accident. He also showed the judge a picture of the youngster in the emergency room at Calais Regional Hospital.

Cavanaugh told the judge that Deschaine was going too fast for the conditions and was not appropriately licensed to drive the commercial vehicle he was operating. He conceded that the fact Deschaine had no prior violations on his driving record would help mitigate the sentence.

But the assistant district attorney also pointed out that during the trial, he had asked Deschaine to set aside the criminal liability of the case, and to agree that he was just going too fast. Cavanaugh said Deschaine denied that he was driving too fast. Cavanaugh reminded the judge that Deschaine said, “I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

Wiley and her mother, Robin Ross, also addressed the judge.

“I don’t believe he even cares,” Wiley said of Deschaine. She told the judge about the emotions she felt when she packed her son’s birthday presents away. She said she continued to have flashbacks of his final moment at the hospital. Wiley said the only way that justice could be served was if Deschaine was sent to prison.

Ross told the judge that words could not express the pain she felt every day. Ross said she still recalled the day when she was called and told that her daughter and grandson had been involved in an accident. “I was so scared,” she told the judge.

Sobbing at times, Ross looked directly at Deschaine and told him that the hopes and dreams she had for her grandson would never be fulfilled.

Deschaine’s attorney, Norman Toffolon of Machias, painted a different picture of his client. He said Deschaine had taken responsibility for his actions, and he challenged the assistant district attorney’s assertion that because Deschaine did not admit to speeding on the witness stand, he now felt no responsibility. Toffolon said his client had to live every day with what had happened three years ago.

Toffolon introduced several character witnesses who spoke on Deschaine’s behalf.

Thomas Thorton, president of Freightliner Corp., described Deschaine as a quiet man and not one to openly show his emotions. Thorton said that when he learned of the accident, he went to the police department in Baileyville and noted that Deschaine’s hands were cut from where he had tried to rip open the door of the Wiley vehicle.

Thorton said that even though Deschaine did not express emotion easily, the man had been a “basket case” since the accident. Several other co-workers also testified for Deschaine.

Deschaine told the judge that he was very sorry for what had happened. “I wish that was my picture instead of Jacob’s,” he said, referring to the photo of the youngster at the hospital.

Before sentencing Deschaine, the judge spoke to the victim’s family. Studstrup said that any sentence he imposed would not “bring Jacob back.” He said he believed Deschaine was truly remorseful, and what made the case difficult was that they were talking about a basically good person, not a hardened criminal who was acting out against society.

Studstrup then sentenced Deschaine to five years in the custody of the Department of Corrections with all but 18 months suspended. He placed Deschaine on four years probation after his release and ordered him to perform 400 hours of public service work.

After the sentencing, Wiley said outside the courthouse that she was not satisfied with the sentence and did not believe it was fair.

Asked if she believed Deschaine when he said he felt remorse, Wiley responded, “Maybe he does. Maybe he is a swell guy, but what about my son. … He [Deschaine] gets his chance, and my son will never have his chance to grow up. Maybe my son would’ve been a swell guy too.”