SKOWHEGAN – Nicolas Irving, 20, found guilty in July of the manslaughter death of his high school classmate in a high-speed motor vehicle accident, was sentenced Wednesday in Somerset County Superior Court.

Irving received 12 years in prison, with all but 21/2 years suspended. He also was ordered to serve six years probation and perform 2,000 hours of community service teaching driver education students about the tragedy of driving at excessive speeds.

“I want you to express to those students the consequences of taking a life on the highway,” Justice Donald Marden said in handing down the sentence.

Irving’s license also was suspended for five years.

Irving, who was captain of the Lawrence High School football team and in his senior year at the time, was estimated to have been driving between 75 and 100 miles per hour two years ago when he crashed his sports car into a tree on Lower Ridge Road in Fairfield. Gary Massey, 18, a classmate of Irving’s, was killed in the crash.

Both boys lived in Clinton and knew each other from school but were not friends or buddies, family members have stated.

During the sentencing hearing, Irving spoke on his own behalf for the first time while Massey’s parents, Anne and Joseph Massey, spoke on behalf of their deceased son.

Holding a lock of her son’s hair and a sneaker taken from the crashed vehicle where it had become wedged in the wreckage, Anne Massey asked Irving, “This is all I have left of my son. You call this a memory?”

The mother told the defendant that “Gary was held hostage in that car while you drove.” Implying that her son may have asked Irving to slow down, Massey asked, “What were his last words? You alone know what he said.”

Joseph Massey, a sergeant with the Waterville Police Department, responded to the scene of the accident on Oct. 27, 1999, to assist Fairfield officers. He was there several minutes before he realized that the victim was his youngest son.

During the hearing, he accused Irving of driving “like a mad man”. He said that in his 25 years on the police force, he had seen hundreds of accidents, but he was not prepared for the scene where his son died.

“There were 300 feet of skid marks, a debris field you would not believe. The car was totally ripped apart. It was clear to anyone who saw this that you were driving at an outrageous speed,” the father said to Irving.

“Would you like to know how I start each day?” he asked the defendant. “I go to the cemetery and have a complete emotional breakdown.”

Massey said the death of his son has taken a permanent toll on him and his family. “If it were not for my responsibilities as a husband, father and grandfather, I could not go on,” he said. “I have days better than others, but I have no good days.”

The victim’s brother, Dana Massey, urged Irving to take responsibility for his actions. “You were a man when you did this,” he told the defendant, who kept his head lowered to his chest throughout the statements made by the victim’s family. “Be a man. Accept responsibility. You will recover from this. Our family will never recover.”

In his address to the judge, Somerset County Deputy District Attorney Alan Kelley asked for a sentence nearly identical to what Marden handed down. He told the judge that Irving had failed to show remorse for his actions and “his actions are even more reprehensible because he was warned [by teachers and others] about his aggressive driving.”

Irving, however, told the Masseys that he was sorry. He looked down at the defense table while speaking, never once looking at the Massey family gathered in the courtroom.

“This whole thing has been just like a puzzle to me,” he said. “Even though I have no recollection of the accident, not a day goes by that I don’t think about it. Every day I wish that I could take Gary’s place.” Irving choked on his words at that point and had to sit down.

After a brief recess, Marden handed down the sentence. He said that the maximum sentence in the case was 20 years in jail and that he was opting for the 12-year sentence.

The judge noted that Irving had invited a passenger into his vehicle and deliberately drove at an excessive speed. “There is some degree of deliberateness, intention there,” he said.

Marden acknowledged Irving’s youth and lack of experience.

“True, he, like a lot of young people, had a weakness for speed and a sense of immortality,” Marden said. “But he already had a speeding conviction and a license suspension. Moreover, he had been warned about his driving habits. He decided to see just how fast this [car] could go.”

After his sentencing, Irving was embraced by his family members and immediately taken away to begin serving his prison time.