Judge OKs plea deal for driver in crash that killed couple. Family cries out for more.

DOVER — Judge Daniel Will accepted a negotiated plea deal that will send Joshua McCarthy of Rochester to prison for at least 10.5 years for a 2020 car crash that killed Barrington couple Suzanne and James Hughes. The judge also tried to offer words of comfort to the late couple's family members and loved ones who weren't happy with the decision.

About 25 people showed up in Strafford County Superior Court Wednesday, many giving tearful, heartfelt pleas for the plea deal to be rejected in hopes of a longer sentence. Will said he understood their pain, but said he felt the plea deal was fair.

"I don't think there is a sentence I could impose that would take away your pain," Will said. "I am truly sorry for what you experienced and what you keep experiencing. It is clear that you are a close family, and I hope that strength helps you heal."

James and Suzanne Hughes died following the crash in Rochester Sept. 19, 2020. James was 64 and Suzanne was 59. According to family, they were married for more than 40 years.

The terms of McCarthy's sentence removed two felony manslaughter charges, replacing them with an alternative of two felony counts of negligent homicide. McCarthy, 33, entered guilty pleas for those two charges, and for two more felony charges, witness tampering (coaching his three passengers on their testimony) and falsifying evidence (throwing alcohol in the woods at the crash scene). On the two counts of negligent homicide and the witness tampering, he will serve three terms of 3.5 to 7 years consecutively, meaning the earliest he could be released is 10.5 years. The falsifying evidence charge was also entered as a guilty plea, suspended pending good behavior.

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Family speaks out through tears

Heather Auger, fiancée of Brian Hughes, a son of the late couple, spoke for him and for his brother David.

"Neither David, Brian or I agree with the sentence deal," she said, noting McCarthy was on parole at the time of the crash, a fact that was acknowledged in court. "He shows no regard for law enforcement, and when this happened, instead of trying to help them, he was more interested in throwing beer bottles into the woods. Our son, who was 2 at the time, still cries, still misses his grandparents. Please give him the maximum sentence you can."

William Hughes, another of the Hughes' four sons, was clearly struggling to speak and had to stop for extended periods to get his emotions under control.

"I have two boys who have lost their grandparents forever," William said. "Time is what he (McCarthy) has stripped from my family. He killed two amazing souls, and he has what our family will never have again, his family to talk to. I can only hear my mother's voice on a video on my phone. None of us is perfect, but what I can't forgive is his lack of caring. He saw them lying on the ground dying, and he didn't care."

What the family said happened next was like pouring salt in their wounds, family members said. They said McCarthy stuck out his tongue at them and made a rude noise as he was led from the courtroom.

"I cannot believe what he just did," said Bill Lemelin, Suzanne's brother. "I was looking right at him. He knows he got off easy."

"He looked right at us," said Katie Sylvester, a family friend. "He was smirking. This is unbelievable."

In court, Lemelin said he has nightmares about the crash.

"I see it in my head, he said. "I drive by there and I see it."

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Family members vow to keep up fight

"There might be nothing we can do right now," said Brian Hughes, one the couple's four sons. "But, when his sentence review comes up, I and all of us will be right here trying to keep him in jail. He is not sorry for taking our parents, and he essentially won with this deal he got."

"This loss is too much; he needs to pay," said Karen Lemelin, another relative on Suzanne's side. "All of our children, our grandchildren have suffered such loss, while he can still visit his family, including his child. It is not fair. Make sure he pays."

McCarthy is ordered to have no contact with the family, and when he is released, his driver's license will be revoked for a period of five years.

A Strafford County Superior Court grand jury indicted McCarthy in 2021.

The indictments alleged McCarthy caused the fatal crash when he failed to stop at a stop sign and pulled his 2017 Chevrolet Silverado onto Washington Street (Route 202) in Rochester in front of a 2010 Dodge Journey James Hughes Sr. was operating, at about 9:15 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020 near the intersection of Washington Street and Fillmore Boulevard. McCarthy's Silverado collided with the Journey as James Hughes Sr. drove it west on Washington Street, police have said.

Suzanne, who was in the front passenger seat, was pronounced dead at the scene. James died on the way to the hospital.

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Judge OKs plea deal for Rochester man in crash that killed couple