BANGOR – A former Husson College student was sentenced Thursday in Penobscot County Superior Court to six years in jail with all but 15 months suspended, and four years of probation for the brutal beating of a Bucksport man 13 months ago outside a Bangor pool hall.

Christopher Harper, 19, of Belgrade also was ordered to pay Michael Bryant’s medical bills.

Harper pleaded guilty to one count of Class B aggravated assault last June. The maximum sentence is 10 years in jail, but prosecutors asked that Harper serve one to two years.

“Sentencing is not an effort to quantify a victim’s suffering,” said Justice Andrew Mead in handing down the sentence. “Every account of the offense itself expresses grave indifference to humanity. … This sentence is very significant. It could have been much longer. It could have been for murder – there but for the grace of God go they.”

Harper and three brothers from Surry were arrested more than a year ago on charges of aggravated assault. Craig, Daniel and Matthew Harriman, three in a set of quadruplets, along with Harper were accused of severely beating Bryant in the parking lot of Miami North on April 8, 2000.

Witnesses told police that Harper kicked a kneeling and bleeding Bryant in the face as if he were “punting a soccer ball.” When Bryant fell backward onto the pavement, Harper kicked him in the face again.

All of the bones in Bryant’s face except his lower jaw were broken, an emotional Bryant told the court Thursday. He and his parents, Randall and Mary Bryant of Bucksport, asked the court to sentence Harper to at least five years in jail.

Bryant read a brief statement he wrote last year when Harper entered his guilty plea. Bryant, dressed in a blue work shirt, black jeans and black boots with a steel plate on the outside of the toes, wept as his parents told the court about his injuries.

“It is only by the grace of God and a wonderful medical team that Michael’s alive today,” said Bryant’s mother. “When I saw him in the hospital, his face did not look human, least of all like my son’s face.”

Randall Bryant said that because his son had no medical insurance, he owed the doctors and the hospital $80,000. Because he has not been able to work since the attack, he cannot afford the $1,500 for dental surgery needed because his front teeth were knocked out.

With his hand over his heart, Harper offered “my deepest apologies” to Bryant and his family.

“It makes me sick that I did this,” said Harper, wearing a tie, blue sport jacket, white shirt and chinos. “Since April 8, I have changed my life. I don’t drink alcohol and I have changed my friends, moving away from those who use alcohol and drugs. I can make a difference and need to pay my debt to society in a positive way.”

Sumner Lipman, Harper’s attorney, urged Mead to take a different approach to sentencing and order his client to serve 30 days in jail, then a year of intense community service, in addition to restitution. Harper’s parents, an uncle and a former teacher told the court that his behavior that night was out of character with the young man they knew and loved.

Harper, who left Husson after his freshman year, has been working at an Augusta car dealership in sales for the past year. He has no prior criminal record and since the incident has been in individual and family counseling, according to Lipman of Augusta.

According to witness statements, the brawl began in the early hours of April 8, 2000, after a brief confrontation inside the Odlin Road pool hall. Bryant reportedly told the four men, who had been refused additional alcohol at last call, to stop hassling the bartender.

The fight began shortly after closing time, when Bryant and a friend left the bar and were met in the parking lot by the four men, who had left about 20 minutes earlier. When police arrived on the scene, Bryant was lying unconscious, face up on the pavement, with extensive head injuries. The four men, who had tried to hail a taxi, had fled into nearby woods.

The Harriman brothers have pleaded not guilty to the charges and are seeking a change of venue in the case. They are scheduled to be in court June 11.