AUBURN – Scott Poirier forgave his father Monday for sexually abusing him when he was a teenager and said he was sorry he fatally shot him because of it.

“I now have to live with the fact that I killed someone that I loved very much,” he said.

Poirier told a judge at Androscoggin County Superior Court that he needed more help than he had once thought.

Before sentencing him to five years in prison, Justice Joyce Wheeler told Poirier that “there was something about you that indicated to me that you were worth taking a chance on.”

A jury in January acquitted Poirier on a murder charge and convicted him instead of manslaughter in the November 2006 death in Lewiston. Jurors believed Poirier, who lives in Sabattus, suffered from an abnormal condition of mind at the time of the shooting. The Class A felony could have landed him in prison for up to 30 years.

But Wheeler said Poirier was unlike any other defendant she’d encountered, noting that in his statement, he showed remorse by taking responsibility for shooting his father with a rifle at Roland “Jerry” Poirier’s 65th birthday party with most of the family gathered around a dining table at the elder Poirier’s home.

“I am sorry for bringing so much pain to this family” Scott Poirier said, adding he hoped the rift he caused will one day heal.

“Today, I stand here wondering still why so many people are standing behind me after all I have done,” he said, choking back sobs. “I sure as hell don’t feel like a good person.”

Poirier, 35, also mentioned his older brother, Raymond, who had testified for the prosecution at Poirier’s trial. Ray told the judge Monday that his father was a good man and didn’t deserve to be killed by Scott, who decided to be “judge, jury and executioner.”

Raymond Poirier said his brother had killed a father, grandfather, husband and brother. “No one has the right to victimize a family the way my brother has,” he said.

“Ray, I love you bro,” Scott Poirier told his brother, who sat off to the side in the back of the courtroom dabbing his eyes with a tissue.

Scott Poirier said he was silent about his abuse because he was embarrassed. “I am more ashamed and embarrassed today to be known as a killer than the embarrassment I felt from the abuse,” he told the judge.

In deciding on a 12-year sentence with all but five years suspended, Wheeler said she set the basic sentence at 16 years then reduced it after considering factors that might lengthen it or shorten it. The mitigating factors far outweighed the aggravating factors, she concluded.

“The community support in this case has been simply overwhelming,” she said, noting more than a dozen speakers on Poirier’s behalf and the courtroom filled to capacity with family and friends.

The combination of his longtime job history, lack of criminal record, cooperation with police and loving relationship with his four young sons also helped to drive down the time he would end up spending in prison, Wheeler said.

After subtracting time served and allowing time off for good behavior, Poirier should be released from prison after roughly two years, she said.

“It’s not easy,” she said. “I do not want to send a message to the community that taking the law into your own hands is a way to address problems.”

Poirier thanked Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese for treating his family, especially his mother, with kindness.

He also thanked Wheeler for the six weeks of freedom she allowed him while out on bail after his conviction.

Police said Poirier had taken a hunting rifle and driven from his Sabattus home to his parents’ Lewiston home in the rain on Nov. 8, 2006. He stood in the backyard and shot his father in the neck through the French doors of the dining room.

He put his rifle on the ground beside his sister’s house next door and turned himself in to police, who arrived to a 911 call of a wine bottle exploding. It had been shattered by the bullet from Poirier’s .270-caliber rifle.

He told police his father had molested him when he was 15 years old. He had been drinking heavily, was depressed and suicidal, witnesses testified at trial.

“I do forgive you, Dad,” Poirier said Monday. “God I wish we could be doing this face to face, how it should have been done 20 years ago. Sorry, Dad.”

He asked for his father’s forgiveness, but said he would never know whether it was granted.

Marchese told the judge Poirier should serve about 13 years in prison for his crime, in part, to send the message that vigilante justice wouldn’t be tolerated. She also said Poirier put a dozen family members, including children, in jeopardy when he fired a bullet into a crowded dining room.

Instead of seeking help for his sexual and substance abuse, he killed his father, she said.

Steven Peterson, Poirier’s attorney, said his client should have a suspended sentence, with only his time served in jail already, and lengthy probation.

In addition to his prison time, Poirier must perform 300 hours of community service that should involve his experience with sexual abuse and substance abuse. He also must pay more than $8,000 in restitution to a victims’ compensation fund once he’s released from prison.

Poirier asked whether, before he started serving his sentence, he could spend time Monday with his sons, who were kept out of the courtroom during sentencing. But Justice Wheeler rejected his request, noting he had just spent six weeks with them.

“What’s going to matter to your children is how you live your life” after prison, Wheeler said.