Joshua McNally a Truck Driver crossed the centerline while driving on Route 302 in Casco, killing  Adam Perron’s in his car on April 2016.

Joshua McNally, the truck driver who will serve six years in prison for manslaughter, a judge decided Monday.

At the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland, Superior Court Justice Nancy Mills sentenced McNally to 17 years, with all but six suspended, plus four years of probation. He will also serve six years concurrently on a charge of causing a death while driving on a suspended license, Mills ruled.

McNally said he doesn’t remember anything from the morning of the crash, although other drivers said they saw him driving erratically and crossing the middle of the road at least twice in the minutes preceding the crash. Both times, other vehicles – an ambulance with its lights and siren on and a large tractor-trailer – had to swerve to avoid a head-on crash.

There’s no indication that McNally, who was driving for Native Maine Produce, was using his cellphone at the time of the crash, but  show records indicated that he had made five calls during the hour before the crash, including a call 12 minutes before to a man who is described as a dealer that McNally sometimes bought drugs from.  Records also indicated that five apps on the phone were open while the Trucker was driving.

Mills said she was convinced that McNally’s cellphone must have played some role in the crash and hopes that the sentence sends a message to to ALL DRIVERS.

“It’s the new addiction,” she said. “People simply cannot put this thing away … anymore than an alcoholic can put down a bottle of gin or a heroin addict can put down a needle.”

McNally told the court he was “deeply remorseful” for the crash.

“Somehow, saying I am sorry just isn’t enough,” he said. “It seems so small a gesture.”

Mills said she believed that McNally had accepted responsibility for the crash and Perron’s death, noting that he agreed to plead guilty after initially entering a plea of not guilty. That spared Perron’s family the ordeal of a trial, she said.

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