DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) – A Brockton man was sentenced to two years behind bars on Wednesday after he was found guilty of motor vehicle homicide while drunk for causing a crash that killed a former Iranian hostage.

Richard C. Clinch, 24, was drunk and speeding at about 5:30 a.m. when his car rear-ended a pickup truck being driven by Malcolm Kalp, 63, of Weymouth in April 2002 on Route 24 in Stoughton, prosecutors said.

The impact forced Kalp’s truck to strike a guardrail and flip over. Kalp was pronounced dead at the scene.

William Cintolo, Clinch’s lawyer, said his client struck Kalp’s vehicle only after trying to avoid debris in the road, and that he passed field sobriety tests. “I thought there was serious questions in regards to intoxication,” Cintolo said. He had not decided whether to appeal as of Wednesday evening.

Kalp was officially listed as the U.S. Embassy’s commercial officer when he and 65 others were taken hostage by militants on Nov. 4, 1979.

But his captors claimed documents they recovered at the embassy showed he worked for the CIA and he was held for 444 days.

Kalp tried to escape three times, and was beaten and held in solitary confinement for more than a year as a result.

Kalp, a Vietnam veteran, remained bitter toward his former captors years after his release.

In March of 2000, shortly after former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced the United States was extending an olive branch to Iran by opening some trade, Kalp rejected the overture.

“I wouldn’t have anything to do with them,” he told The Associated Press.

Kalp thought Iran should first demonstrate “major corrections in their international behavior,” including ceasing to send arms “through Syria to attack Israel.”

Kalp lived an inconspicuous life in retirement, selling scrap metal and antiques at a Raynham flea market, where he was headed the morning of the accident.

Prosecutors had asked that Clinch be sentenced to two to three years in state prison, while the defense had asked for a sentence of one year in a county jail. A judge sentenced Clinch to two years in the jail.

“Although we believed this case warranted a state prison sentence, we are pleased that this defendant has been held accountable for the death of Malcolm Kalp and will be serving a significant sentence,” Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said. “It is my hope that the widow and family of this brave American take some small measure of comfort that the justice system has worked as they continue to mourn this sad passing.”