A former Luzerne County attorney will spend between 3 and 6 years in state prison, pending appeal, related to a deadly 2018 crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Carbon County.

Joseph Perisco, 73, of Shavertown, was sentenced Tuesday morning by Carbon County Common Pleas Judge Joseph Matika after a jury found him guilty in October of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, simple assault, and two counts of recklessly endangering another person.

Persico was accused of driving his white Audi A4 south in the northbound lanes of Interstate 476 on Nov. 6, 2018, when he collided head-on with a green Honda Civic driven by Paul Gerrity, 50, who died at the scene from multiple blunt-force injuries.

The crash happened at the Mahoning Valley turnpike exit just before midnight.

Following the 2018 incident, Persico suffered a fall at his home, which left him paralyzed and confined to a motorized wheelchair.

Before reading the sentence Tuesday, Matika referenced a pre-sentence investigation report that included 37 letters of support for Persico and described him as a pillar of the community.

“I read each of the 37 letters and I’ve never had to sentence an individual where there was so much support,” Matika said when addressing Persico. “But there was an evil lurking within that man and that evil was alcoholism. I think you downplayed the extent to which alcoholism had consumed you and, sadly, you realized that too late.”

Persico, described by others in the support letters as a family and religious man, said Tuesday he prays for Gerrity and his family daily.

“Of all the things I have asked of God in my life, the thing I ask the most is to turn back the hands of time and eliminate the tragedy of that day,” he said. “For about three years I’ve been confined to a wheelchair and imprisoned in my shell of a body and if this is God’s response to the tragedy of that day, so be it.”

Carbon County Assistant District Attorney Kara Beck, who prosecuted the case in October, said sentencing day was a long time coming for Gerrity’s family, who waited over five years for the legal process to play out.

“I’m not going to stand here and say Joseph Persico is a bad human being, but today isn’t about him,” Beck said. “Today is about the victims. No sentence that any judge could fashion will turn back the hands of time and bring Paul back for his family.”

An emotional Donna Gerrity, Paul’s sister, submitted a letter to the court describing the more than five years of heartbreak spent waiting for justice.

“Some have said that process was due to things beyond my control,” Donna said. “But I do know that what brought us here today, my brother’s death, was within someone’s control. It was totally within someone’s control not to get behind the wheel of a car and drive drunk. My brother didn’t have to die.”

Though Persico was sentenced Tuesday, he was not taken immediately to prison as Matika deferred the reporting date to March 13 citing “logistics that need to be worked out first.”

Persico’s attorney, Paul Walker, said he plans to file a post-sentence motion within the allotted 10 days, essentially beginning the appeal process.

Matika reset Persico’s bail to $150,000 and ordered him to remain in the community until the appeal process plays itself out and all post-sentence motions are exhausted.