A Georgia man will spend the next 10 years behind bars for a decade-old crash that took the lives of two teenagers, a judge ruled Wednesday.

In August, Anthony James “A.J.” Scott, 36, was convicted by a Carroll County jury on five of the six counts against him, including two counts of serious injury by vehicle and one count each of homicide in the second degree by vehicle, speeding, and reckless driving.

That conviction saw Scott lose his job as mayor of Buchanan – a tiny town located roughly 55 miles due west of Atlanta.

Now, the former mayor will lose his freedom. During a sentencing hearing that was equal parts accusatory and conciliatory, Coweta Superior Court Judge Erica Tisinger sentenced the defendant to 20 years, with half of that sentence to be served in state prison.

“It’s been a long 10 years,” Tisinger said during the hearing, according to a courtroom report by Atlanta-based NBC affiliate WXIA. “It has taken a long time to reach this phase in the trial. I cannot begin to imagine your emotions and your pain and your grief.”

At the time of the crash, Scott was a Georgia State Trooper.

On the night of Sept. 26, 2015, Scott was doing 90 mph in a 55 mph zone, down a dark and wet stretch of U.S. Highway 27 in his patrol car – with no lights and no siren – when he slammed into the Nissan Sentra driven by Dillon Wall while braking at around 65 mph.

That crash left Wall with a fractured skull and his friend Benjamin Finken with a traumatic brain injury, and two other passengers would suffer worse fates: Isabella Chinchilla, 16, and Kylie Lindsey, 17, died.

Impact statements took aim at the ex-trooper and sacked mayor.

“I’d like to ask A.J. Scott what he was doing 10 years ago today,” Kylie’s mother said, according to a courtroom report by Court TV. “I was burying my daughter 10 years ago today, because you killed her.”

The judge felt compelled to address the timing of the proceedings. The sentencing hearing was apparently inadvertently scheduled on the anniversary of Isabella’s and Kylie’s funerals. Tisinger said she did not realize this confluence and apologized to their families.

Kylie’s father also directly addressed the defendant: “I just have one question for you … why?”

Wall himself, who lived to tell the horrific tale about the night of the crash, had a stark condemnation for Scott – addressing the disgraced officer’s behavior during and after the incident.

“I cry every night … because of this man right there,” the survivor said. “He doesn’t do anything but smirk at me and smile at me.”

Wall reportedly went on to accuse Scott of lacking remorse during his trial, and even criticized the killer’s defense attorney. This line of commentary eventually drew an intervention from the judge.

“Mr. Scott had no intention to harm anyone,” Tisinger said, WXIA reported. “But those actions have consequences.”

But it was not just the victims and their families with harsh words.

Senior DeKalb County District Attorney Heather Waters reportedly told the court the carnage on the roadway was solely due to Scott’s speeding and echoed the notion that the now-convicted man had never shown remorse for his actions.

As if on cue, just before sentencing, Scott’s defense attorney read a letter penned by his client apologizing for the fatal crash.

Scott, for his part, took the stand during his trial and confirmed his speed, the lack of lights and sirens, and acknowledged that he was not even responding to a dispatch call at the time, according to a courtroom report by Atlanta-based Fox affiliate WAGA.

Prosecutors haltingly tried the defendant in 2019 – proceedings that ended in a mistrial after prosecutors failed to turn over information about the seating arrangements of the victims. Multiple delays pushed the two-week retrial back to earlier this summer.

Ultimately, Scott was convicted of Isabella’s homicide, but not Lindsey’s homicide. During the sentencing hearing, Isabella’s mother pleaded with the judge to impose the maximum sentence because the victims received “a life sentence.”

Instead, Tisinger issued the sentence in line with a recommendation issued by the Peach State’s Department of Community Supervision.