AUBURN – A judge sentenced a man to jail for three weeks and a woman to community service Thursday for their roles in connection with a Poland car crash that killed six people.

More than a dozen family members and friends of the accident victims looked on as Ryan Brissette, 29, of Poland, and Samantha Renee Montana, 20, of Lewiston, appeared in Androscoggin County Superior Court.

Mothers of two of the victims read statements.

“My family has been devastated by this loss,” said Jill Bruce, mother of 19-year-old Robert Bruce, who was riding in one of the cars.

Her son had just completed his first semester at college. His school called after the accident to announce he’d made the dean’s list.

“Our lives have been changed forever,” she said. The charges against the defendants “seem disproportionate to the consequences of their actions.”

Brissette pleaded “no contest” to a misdemeanor charge of allowing a minor to possess or consume alcohol or liquor.

Justice Thomas Delahanty II ordered Brissette to serve three weeks at Androscoggin County Jail, following the recommendation of Assistant District Attorney Deborah Cashman, who prosecuted the case.

She outlined the case, explaining why her office agreed to Brissette’s plea and didn’t take the case to trial. The crime was punishable by up to 364 days in jail.

Cashman said one of the people living at Brissette’s home had friends over the night of Dec. 23, 2006. Some of them apparently brought alcohol.

Brissette came home and allowed his younger stepbrother to entertain his friends, though Brissette wasn’t in the same room with them.

Cashman said the state had no evidence that Brissette furnished alcohol to underage drinkers at his home.

Prosecutors agreed to change the Androscoggin County grand jury indictment charging Brissette. It had stated that Brissette knowingly allowed five women and five men – all underage – to have or drink alcohol. The amended charge included only one of the nine people, a minor Brissette knew by sight.

One of those underage drinkers at Brissette’s home was Michael Cournoyer, 20, of Auburn.

He drove Montana’s car after leaving Brissette’s home with three passengers. The Nissan Altima he was driving crossed the center line of Route 122, colliding with another car. That car’s driver, Stephen Walton, 27, and his passenger and fiancee, Laura Caron, 25, were killed. Cournoyer and passengers Robert Bruce, Jacob Roy, 20, and Matthew Manley, 18, also were killed.

Montana, who lived in an Auburn apartment with Cournoyer, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of permitting an unlawful use. She was given a deferred disposition. That means she must not engage in any criminal conduct over the next year, including traffic violations, otherwise she could face a sentence of up to six months in jail, Delahanty said.

Over the next year, she must volunteer 100 hours at the nonprofit Healthy Androscoggin on issues of youth and alcohol.

At the end of a year, if she’s completed her community service and steered clear of the law, the misdemeanor charge will be dropped and she could withdraw her plea. At that time, she could admit to a civil infraction for the same conduct and pay a $1,000 fine.

Neither she nor Brissette made a statement to the court about the charges.

Lisa Caron described to the judge what effect the loss of her daughter, Laura, has had on her.

“I’ve been robbed,” she said. “This has shattered my world.”

She said the sound of her daughter screaming wakes her from sleep.

“I still feel numb and empty,” she said.

She called the sentences a “slap on the hand” and likened Brissette’s and Montana’s crimes to providing Cournoyer with a loaded weapon that killed six people.

Brissette gave Cournoyer the gun and Montana loaded it, Caron said.

Cashman said Montana let Cournoyer drive her car from their Auburn apartment to Brissette’s home while she rode with female friends. He later used her car again when he left the party.

Cournoyer’s blood-alcohol content was .14 percent, nearly twice the legal driving limit. Police said alcohol was a factor in the crash.

Both defendants disagreed with certain details of Cashman’s summary of events that led up to the accident.

Montana’s indictment was changed to specify that she let Cournoyer drive her car even though his license had been suspended.

Some family members expressed disappointment with the sentences.

Cashman said after court adjourned that her office had been meeting with eight different people affected by the accident over the past year or so as the cases progressed.

“We tried to involve them as much as we possibly could,” she said.