LEWISTON – A Sabattus man is hoping a judge will lessen his manslaughter sentence so he can reunite with his four young sons.

Scott Poirier, 36, was in 8th District Court on Friday. A jury convicted him in the 2006 shooting death of his father, and a judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison with all but five years suspended.

At his sentencing in Androscoggin County Superior Court in March, Justice Joyce Wheeler said Poirier likely would spend roughly two years in prison, after accounting for the 471 days he had already spent in Androscoggin County Jail awaiting trial and taking into account anticipated time off for good behavior.

Defense attorney Steven Peterson of Rockport told Wheeler on Friday that the Maine Department of Corrections last month estimated Poirier’s release date sometime in 2011. If Wheeler intended to have Poirier spend only two years in prison after his sentencing, his estimated release date should be in 2010, Peterson said.

Peterson said his client had a certificate to show he completed drug and alcohol counseling.

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese, who prosecuted Poirier, said the judge’s sentence should be taken at face value. He should serve the full five years imposed by the judge, minus time served and time off for good behavior, as calculated by the Department of Corrections.

Wheeler’s “off-handed comment” made in court during sentencing shouldn’t take the place of the factual sentencing analysis carried out by the judge before she imposed the five years for Poirier to serve, Marchese said.

“You meant what you said,” Marchese told the judge.

Marchese said other judges give estimates at the time of sentencing as to the actual time a convicted defendant might end up serving – and are encouraged to do so. But those estimates are nonbinding, she said.

Wheeler said she would review a transcript of the sentencing before ruling on Poirier’s motion.

Poirier shot his father, Roland “Jerry” Poirier, with a hunting rifle during the elder Poirier’s 65th birthday celebration at his Grove Street home. The jury believed Poirier suffered from an abnormal condition of mind at the time of the shooting because he had been a teenage victim of sexual abuse at the hands of his father.

Dozens of Poirier’s family members and well-wishers were in court Friday, including his four young sons.