FARMINGTON – A sentencing hearing for a Massachusetts man found guilty in May of leaving the scene of a fatal accident in 2008 has been continued.

Domingos Medeiros, 49, of Assonet, was scheduled to be sentenced Friday at Franklin County Superior Court in Farmington. A new date has not been set, Clerk of Courts Vicki Hardy said Thursday.

Medeiros was hauling 17-foot beams back to his HardPine Inc. business in Fall River, Mass., from a job site in Kingfield on Jan. 16, 2008. More than a ton of lumber fell out of his trailer, some of it striking two cars on Route 27 in New Vineyard.

About a half-dozen or so 6½- by 12-inch beams went through the windshield of a car killing the driver Stephen McKenney, 55, of New Portland and injuring two others in a car traveling behind his.

Medeiros testified during a bench trial before Justice Michaela Murphy in February that he couldn’t explain how he didn’t know he had lost the load of beams. He said it might have fallen into the snow and he didn’t hear it, stressing that he had tied the load down securely.

A Maine State Police reconstructionist testified at the trial that he found marks in the road where beams struck the pavement and also found a strap.

Medeiros did not notice his load was missing until he arrived at a restaurant on Route 4 in Farmington, he told the court. Medeiros said he tried to the return to find the lumber but said he couldn’t get through because it was blocked due to a multivehicle accident. He didn’t push to see police because he knew they were busy, he said then, and was sure the wood was not involved in the accident.

He returned to Massachusetts and didn’t turn himself in to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department until nine days later, though he said he wanted to the day after the accident, when he learned the beams were involved in the accident. His Massachusetts lawyer advised against it, he told the court.

 

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